


Dark Skies

by camz_laur96



Category: Fifth Harmony (Band)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-06-01 03:53:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 28,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15134528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camz_laur96/pseuds/camz_laur96
Summary: Lauren Jauregui knew more than she cared to know about the four women that stood in front of her. One of them saved her life, two wanted to see her dead, and the one she cared for the most didn't care about her at all, she hated Lauren. There was nothing she could do to stop the one from hating her, or the other two for wanting her dead.As Lauren grew up the environment around her changed more than she liked. She witnessed a government get taken over and a new one rise to power. She saw society crumble right in front of her eyes. She was abandoned by the only people she cared about at the age of 12, leaving her on the streets to raise herself. At the age of 15 a gang took her in and helped raise her. Lauren witnessed more destruction in only 18 years than one should witness in their whole lifetime.All that could be said about Camila Cabello was that she had everything she ever needed or wanted handed right to her. She knew nothing about how many people were suffering around her as she only cared for herself and nobody else.**WARNING: STORY INCLUDES VIOLENCE IN MOST CHAPTERS!!**





	1. Prologue

The room was very dim, the only light provided was from a small lamp on a desk. The desk was a few feet away from Lauren and at that desk sat a guard. Next to her was a small girl that Lauren didn't care to talk to, yet for the past few hours she insisted on trying to talk to her. With her hands handcuffed behind her back and her feet tied together she couldn't move away from the girl, no matter how annoying she would be. Lauren quickly noticed that the guard fell asleep once the girl began talking again. 

"You look like the type of person that would be stuck in here. Wait, why are you even here?" Lauren rolled her eyes as she began shifting her hands around. "What are you doing?"

"Do you ever shut up?" Lauren quickly took a deep breath. "Fuck."

"Are you okay?"

"No I'm not okay, I'm stuck in whatever this place is with someone who won't shut the fuck up and now I have a dislocated thumb." The girl kept quiet but kept a close eye on Lauren.

Lauren easily slid her one hand out of the handcuffs and was able to somehow put her thumb back into place which shocked the girl next to her. She then quickly untied the ropes around her feet, surveying the room again before standing up and slowly making her way to the sleeping guard. She spotted keys on the desk, along with a handgun.

"You're not going to be able to make it out of here alive." Lauren ignored her as she unlocked her other hand. "It's impossible to get out of these places."

"And how would you know that?" 

"The King uses this as a place to keep prisoners so there's a lot of guards here." 

"Well his whole system of how this world works is shit so I'm sure his security is too." Lauren nudged the sleeping guard that was at the desk, he didn't move. "Like look at this guy, sleeping when he's suppose to be watching us. I'm walking out of this place and I know I'm capable of making it out alive, you don't know me to say that I can't make it out of here."

"Actually Lauren, I do know you." 

For what seemed like the hundredth time, Lauren ignored the girl and walked out of the room, not caring to help her or the one other person in the room she didn't even realize was there.

~~

In the year of 2040 the United States seemed like a normal place, except it wasn't. Government was slowly crumbling along with society, yet nobody could realize it unless they actually worked in the government. This was all the cause of one unknown man.

He had a small group of followers that believed in the same things as him and his family. They all had one big plan, taking down the government. To many this idea seemed insane and one that couldn't be accomplished, but to him and those who knew of the plan it was as easy as riding a bicycle to carry it out.

There was an unexpected attack on the government. The man and his group sparred nobody which easily allowed them to take over. In the year of 2046 he declared himself king and that he had absolute rule over the people. He stated that his eldest child would take over his position if something were to happen to him. Many didn't believe that she was fit for this job so those who worked for him did everything in their power to keep him safe. 

Lauren was only 11 when this man declared himself king. The year is now 2053 and Lauren is now 18. For the past six years she lived independently, or at least tried to as much as she could. When she was 12 a group of people took her in and allowed her to live with them. Little did she know that they were a gang and that she would eventually join them which allowed her to have a large amount of respect in the area that she lived in. 

The area she lived in wasn't safe, nowhere was safe anymore. Since she spent most of her time in what was known as Miami she was safer than she would be in other places. 

But there was still danger in places that seemed safe. 

~~

As Lauren walked out of the room she was held in she couldn't stop thinking about what that girl met. She has never seen her before at home. Her thoughts then wondered to one of the questions she asked, why Lauren was there. She didn't know the answer herself. The last thing she remembered was walking to one of the small shops in Miami and then everything went back as something hit her, she thinks, and she woke up in that room.

Guards rounded the corner the same time she did, interrupting her thoughts, but she made quick work of them by shooting them both in the chest before they could ready their own guns. Lauren walked cautiously down a long hall that the guards came from. 

Everything was oddly silent, to silent for Lauren's comfort. The only sound that could be heard was her footsteps that she tried to make as quiet as possible. Half of the lights in the hall barely worked either but it was a normal thing to see around cities, but it wasn't normal for a place that was owned by someone with money. It was also cold but Lauren was also only wear her usual black skinny jeans and a white tank top. She must be either somewhere north or underground, she thought. She was leaning more towards the latter since she has yet to see a window. 

Another corner was coming up and Lauren decided to go down that hallway since the one she was in seemed to be leading nowhere. Before she could turn down it she heard footsteps coming her way, but they didn't sound like those of a guard. Instead it was the footsteps of a girl that looked around her age, but was shorter than her. Lauren could quickly tell she didn't seem to belong here, both of her arms were covered in tattoos and she didn't wear a guards uniform or an outfit that someone of a high status would wear. 

The girl didn't seem to notice Lauren until she walked a few feet in front of her and turned around to look at her. "I don't know who you are, but if you're a guard that isn't the proper uniform and you aren't doing much guarding by standing against a wall and staring at me." Before Lauren could reply she heard more footsteps, this time coming from behind her. 

"That's the one. She was suppose to be in room 7 but somehow got out taking my keys and gun." Two guards and a man dressed in what appeared to be expensive clothing walked quickly towards her. Lauren quickly backed away from them, towards the girl. 

"If you were guarding that room how did she get out?" The man sounded furious at the guard, yet nobody was doing anything about Lauren being out of the room. Out of the corner of her eye she did see the shorter girl staring at her, but chose to ignore it. 

Instead Lauren slowly raised her gun at the man and noticed the panicked look on both of the guards faces. Only one guard raised his gun up too, him and Lauren staring each other down but neither of them pulling the trigger. 

This seemed to make the man even more furious as he began yelling at the guard. "Why are you hesitating! She's a prisoner just shoot her, she has a gun aimed at me! Your king!" 

Lauren quickly decided to speak up at this moment, "pull the trigger I dare you." She knew what she was doing as she kept her gun aimed at the King and a smirk on her face. She was standing close enough to the girl that if there was the slightest movement from the guard that made it seem like he was about to pull the trigger she could move behind her in a second. The guard seemed even more hesitate as he glanced between Lauren and the shorter girl. 

The movement didn't come from the guard first, it came from the King. He quickly moved and took the gun from the guard's hand to aim at Lauren but she was faster, quickly shooting the gun out of his hand and making sure not to hit anybody. As soon as it happened both guards started to close the distance between them and Lauren, but she was smarter. She pulled the shorter girl in front of her, placing the gun's barrel against her temple. Both guards instantly stopped moving. 

It was a few minutes of nobody saying anything before the shorter girl spoke. "She has the mark." Lauren knew what she was talking about, the tattoo of a viper on her forearm. "She's one of them." Again, everybody stayed silent, as if the girl never spoke.

"What's your name love?" Lauren lowered her gun, but kept a tight grip on the girl so she couldn't move away.

"C-Camila." 

"Karla. You're middle name is Camila." Lauren's smirk instantly grew as the King spoke.

"The precious Princess Cabello? You should have said maybe I would have treated you with more decency." 

She laughed, "you wouldn't of held a gun at me if you knew?"

"No I still would have," Lauren looked towards the King. "I just want out of here, go back to my family. If you allow that then maybe you can keep some of your family alive." 

"Let go of my daughter and set your weapon down and maybe I will consider it." 

"I'm keeping the gun since your men seemed to have took mine away." Camila nodded at her father, as if she was saying to agree with Lauren. 

"The door down that hallway is the way out, I'll have the guards escort you out if you let her go." 

Lauren was about to agree but she heard two gunshots as the two guards quickly dropped to the ground. Everyone's attention turned down the hallway as the girl that was in the same room as Lauren was quickly walking down it. Another gunshot was heard and the King quickly dropped to the ground grabbing his leg. Camila struggled to get out of Lauren's grip was unsuccessful. 

"I'm surprised you lasted this long, but you are a Viper so I guess I can't say I'm too shocked." The girl walked past the King, easily ignoring him and walking up to Lauren.

"Who are you and how do you know I'm a Viper?" 

The girl rolled up the sleeve of her shirt, showing the same viper tattoo that Lauren has. "I'm family and I'm going to get us out of here." 

"What are we going to do with her?" 

"She's coming with us of course."


	2. Part 1

Lauren vaguely remembers when her family left. The most she remembers is waking up to nothing. There wasn't the usual arguing between her two younger siblings, Chris and Taylor. There wasn't her parents trying to get them to stop arguing over nothing. Instead there was complete silence and emptiness. She was only 12 when her family left her behind, and six years later she still doesn't have the answer as to why they left.

She can clearly remember the day that two women saved her from living the rest of her life alone.

_~Flashback~_

_Lauren knew this day would come, the day she would be kicked out of her family home and be forced to fend for herselfout in the open. She figured the day would come fast, not three years after her family left._

_She luckily had a store on the corner of the road she lived on, a five minute walk at the most. She was also lucky that there were never security cameras there and an older man owned the store so it was much easier for her to steal the things she needed. Money was never an issue for her, that was until the day she was kicked out of her home._

_There was a loud knock on the door, causing Lauren to take her attention away from a drawing she had been working on for the past two days. It was only a drawing of the tree outside her home, but she added much detail to it so it took her longer to complete._

_"Uhm, hello?" Lauren looked at the man she had never seen before. He was dressed in a suit and tie, something that you don't see in the area she lived in._

_"I'm going to need you to leave the premises immediately."_

_"You can't do that, this is my house," Lauren quickly stood her ground. "It was my parents' house but now it's mine since they aren't here anymore."_

_"I don't care whose house it is kid, you need to leave now."_

_Lauren was about to argue with the man more but he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her outside. She did what she thought was best at that moment, and kicked the man in the knee as hard as she could before walking away._

_"Asshole!" She knew he heard her when she looked back and saw him glaring at her._

_So she left her home with nothing. The only clothes she had were the ones on her back. She wasn't able to get anything to remember her childhood or family, not that she cared to much to remember them._

_She was lucky to only have to live out in the streets for about two weeks. One day as she was making her usual trip to the store for her food two intimidating women approached her. It was only their outfits that intimidated her though, ripped skinny jeans and worn leather jackets._

_"Can I help you?" They both stopped in front of Lauren, blocking her from continuing her walk along the sidewalk._

_"No, but I think we can help you." Lauren scoffed and tried to walk past them but was unsuccessful as the one who spoke moved right in front of her. "Look kid, we know you've been on your own for a long time. We see you walking to that store and stealing all the time. We just want to help you."_

_"I don't need your help, I'm doing perfectly fine on my own."_

_"When was the last time you had more than one meal a day, and by meal I don't mean small snacks. I mean actual food."_

_Lauren could only roll her eyes at them, decided they wouldn't let her be until she answered the question. "I can't remember," she muttered under her breath._

_"I think I can understand how you feel, I had nothing a few years ago but a group of people helped me. You probably heard of them before, the Royal Vipers."_

_Lauren knew exactly who they were, a gang that was found throughout the south of the country. They were known for killing people and dealing drugs mostly. She knew they weren't safe people to be around. They were also known for being against the King and his ideals. It was the only thing she liked them for._

_"You guys murder people and sell drugs, you aren't good people," Lauren was slowly backing away from them, making sure to keep her eyes on them. "I don't think you help anybody."_

_"That's what people want you to hear about us. Yes, we do sell drugs and murder people, but we only murder bad people. People who support the dictatorship."_

_Lauren was still backing up while she spoke, "why do you want to help me?"_

_"I remember how it felt having nobody, you don't need to go through that. You already have been going through that for three years."_

_"Can I trust you guys? Can I trust that what you are saying is true?" Both women only nodded in response. "Okay. I'll accept your help."_

_"Welcome to the Royal Vipers. What's your name?"_

_"Lauren."_

_~End Flashback~_

As Lauren sat in her small room she remembers what happened that day like it was yesterday. On this day, three years ago, she was saved by people she always knew to avoid. These people were actually somewhat good. Like that woman said, they only kill the bad people. She hasn't seen either of them since that day, she figured they went somewhere else to work. 

"Lauren!" Loud knocks interrupted her thoughts. She slowly moved from her bed and opened the door, glaring at whoever interrupted her.

"Great, a visit from Dinah Jane."

"You love when I visit," Dinah walked past Lauren and laid down on the bed. "Don't look at me like that."

"Then get your shoes off of my bed, and I don't appreciate visitors that much. Why are you here, shouldn't you be with your girlfriend?"

"She's not my girlfriend. Anyway, boss wants us to do something for her up north." Of course, Lauren thought. She would get a job on one of the days she prefers to be alone.

"She has a rule that anyone under 18 doesn't do jobs out of the area though and you're 17."

"I'm not going to argue with her about this cause she seemed really concerned that this job gets done." 

Lauren scoffed, "I always get my jobs done. What's this job anyway?"

"We have to take like a carload of weapons up north."

The Royal Vipers have lately become more known as being sort of the rebellion in the country. The leader of the group, Demi Lovato, has been wanting to expand the power of the group to more areas other than the south. They have made it as far as Texas to the west and as far north as South Carolina.

As easy as driving a car north and dropping off weapons would seem, it actually wasn't. Many roads that they would need to go on had roadblocks where the military would check the contents of the cars and see who was actually in those cars. It was nearly impossible to avoid them. Even back roads had roadblocks.

"Why isn't she sending someone who has connections? We won't be able to make it past the roadblocks. If we take the normal route there's at least five roadblocks on each road and we go on twenty different roads. Then if we go on back roads there's at least two on each and then we go on thirty different roads that way. It's not safe for either of us to go." Dinah made a weird face as she sat up from the bed, it was one Lauren didn't like.

"There's another thing she wants us to do. She sort of wants us to take out the roadblocks." 

"As in kill the people who work at the roadblock and blow the whole thing up?" Dinah stayed silent and gave Lauren an innocent smile. "Fuck no, we aren't doing this job. I may not like you Hansen but I'm not getting anybody killed. We can't do this job with two people."

"I already told her we would do it," Dinah quickly said without looking at Lauren.

"This is why I don't like you. You always do shit like this." Without arguing anymore, Lauren quickly got her combat boots on and got anything she would need from her room. She exited her room once she had everything she needed and made her way to where she could normally find Demi, not caring if Dinah followed behind her.

Once she spotted Demi she quickly walked to her, grabbing her by the arm and pulled her off to the side so she could have a word with her.

"The car is ready, it's-"

Lauren quickly interrupted her, "I don't care about the car right now. I want to know why you think it's smart to send two teenagers out to blow shit up and transport contraband weapons."

"I thought you agreed to this, Dinah told me you did."

"Well I didn't, she agreed for me. If I knew about this I would have said no. I'll do the job because I have no other choice but I hope you know you're about to have the death of two teenagers on your hands." Lauren quickly walked away and made her way to the garage where most of their vehicles were stored. 

She found Dinah near one of the larger cars at the front of the garage. The car was already loaded with everything need, including any type of weapon they would need if they ran into trouble.

"I'm driving," Lauren said as she took the keys from Dinah's hand and got into the driver side of the car.

"So what's the plan?" Lauren laid out a map between them, looking over the markings of different roads, their roadblocks, and other places that Vipers could be found.

"We have to go to Asheville, North Carolina since that's our most northern base that's large enough to hold the weapons. It's roughly 800 miles away and takes between eleven and twelve hours without any stops. Stopping at roadblocks makes it about a fourteen hour trip, maybe one or two more. There's a roadblock every five to ten miles." Lauren stopped talking as she followed one of the major roads they would be on with her finger. "This road will have the most secure roadblocks. I say when we get about half a mile away from each roadblock one of us will exit the car, take the sniper and take out as many people as we can. The only problem will be destroying the roadblock without hurting any innocent people that will be in their cars or inside the two buildings on either side of the road."

"Can I ask you a serious question?" Lauren nodded as she looked over to the younger girl, noticing the concern look in her eyes. "Are we going to get to Asheville alive?"

"We'll be lucky if we make it out of Florida alive. I've learned not to think about it though. Before I turned 18 I went on small jobs and they weren't that bad, I did get shot one time though. I also watched more serious jobs sometimes too, they would take me along for experience. There was this one time that twenty people went on a job and only three made it out alive." Lauren sighed as she noticed the concern in Dinah's eyes only growing. "I know I should be saying that everything will be fine but I can't say that because it wouldn't be true. I would be lying if I say this world doesn't suck because this world does, fucked up shit happens all the time and we can't do much about it."

"But we can try our best to do something about it."

"Yeah something like that." Lauren started the car, glancing over at Dinah one more time before turning onto the road. "Let's just protect each other out there, we are family no matter what, even if I do say I don't like you."

Dinah hummed in agreement, causing silence to fall over them. They both knew in a few minutes they would be facing a life or death situation, and they would have to make it through about 100 of them before they were close to safety.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So for this chapter I was originally gonna add a picture of what Lauren’s viper tattoo looks like but obviously that didn’t work out. I wasn’t sure how to add a picture onto here from my phone so I gave up after a few minutes of trying. It’s basically a snake with like a crescent moon above it’s head with some lines around. If you want to see it this story is also on wattpad and the picture of it is on there for this chapter.


	3. Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow I’m terrible at updating already.

Camila Cabello was only ten years old when her father declared himself King. At that age she thought it was fun, she got to be a princess and live like it was a fairy tale. Life wasn't exactly a fairy tale though. While she got almost everything she ever wanted, she was never able to have friends because as soon as someone heard she was the princess people would distance themselves from her. She never understood why they did this until recently. Since she was getting older, now seventeen years old, she understood more of what was going on around her. She knew that most people had nothing while those who sided with her father had everything they would need to survive without struggle. She decided, and knew, everything was her father's fault so she did what every other teenager would do, go against everything he said. 

First, she started out with getting random piercings. She got her ears pierced multiple times but received no reaction from her father. Next she got her belly button pierced, still no reaction except for her father complaining about her wearing a crop top out in public. Then is was her nose and then her lip, still no reaction from her father which really disappointed her. At the same time she wasn't really disappointed. 

Next, Camila got her first tattoo. Her first one wasn't visible though, she only got it to make sure she could handle the pain. Once she knew that she could tolerate it she began getting more and more. At the age of seventeen she now has two full sleeves, tattoos on both of her thighs, and one on her stomach. 

And still to her disappointment, her father didn't care. He acted like nothing had changed with her. Camila decided on one thing then, her father didn't care about her. 

The last person that even cared was her mother. She hasn't seen them in what seems forever. They left as soon as her father started going against the government. Her mother left when she was ten, not much longer after her younger sister was born. 

Her sister, Sofia, would be around seven years old now. Camila missed them both, but mostly missed her mom. She actually seemed to care about her, unlike her father who would occasionally now give her some attention. At one point he did care about her though. It was all lost once he got caught up in his personal mission of making the world a better place. 

Yet Camila never really wanted to know what life would be like with them at home. She wouldn't be able to get all that she wanted, since their money would also have to go to her sister and mother. Many people called her strong for being able to carry on without her mother, but she actually enjoyed her life. At least that's what other people saw.

So that's how she acted. She acted like a normal stuck up rich girl while some people could barely afford a loaf of bread on the outside. She didn't know about those struggles since her father kept her away from life outside their luxurious home. 

Camila planned on continuing to live that way. She had a roof over her head and there was always food in the kitchen and people to make that food for her whenever she wanted. In her opinion she couldn't be living any better. 

~~

Lauren knew something was wrong as soon as she aimed her sniper towards the roadblock buildings. They were about halfway to Asheville, and so far there had been no problems until now. The buildings seemed too empty and quiet. Usually there were large groups of people here. 

Word must have spread about what was happening to the other roadblocks, Lauren thought. 

She took a quick glance back to where Dinah should be with the car, she wasn't there. The car was, but all the doors were opened along with the trunk. The car was empty other than the weapons still in them. Lauren immediately moved from her spot and ran to the car. 

There was nobody around, and it was too quiet for Lauren's liking. So she panicked, luckily the keys were still in the car. She quickly turned the car around and made her way back to Miami. All the roadblocks were out on her way back, thanks to her and Dinah, so it would be a quick trip back. 

Lauren made it back to Miami in roughly six hours. Going back home wasn't a choice, so she needed somewhere else to stay. Also some food since she was hungry. She did a quick drive by of home just to make sure everything looked fine, and it was. 

The closest store was a small gas station. It didn't have much food but it would have to work for the small amount of money Lauren still had with her. The store was empty other than a few people outside getting gas and the owner inside. 

After getting a few snacks and drinks, she walked up to the register and handed over the cash. The owner probably received more money then he was suppose to, but Lauren didn't care since she only wanted to make it out of the area as quickly as possible.

"Lauren? I thought you were up north with Dinah." It was Normani. Of course she would run into to somebody once she was back and trying to get away. 

"We were going up there but there might have been a slight issue. Anyway I have to go, nice seeing you." Lauren began walking away but turned around to see Normani still standing there. "Oh here's the keys for the car we had, could you take them to Demi please. Tell her it's a gift from me." 

"Shouldn't you be the one taking it back?" 

"I wasn't asking you to, I was telling you." 

Lauren tossed the keys to Normani and walked away before she could say anything else. She made her way over to a small market that was across the street. She knew Demi was going to be pissed that the job wasn't complete, along with Dinah being missing. 

But Lauren couldn't be concerned about Dinah as she saw two familiar uniforms walking behind her. They were similar to the ones that the people who ran the roadblocks wore. She could only keep her head down, there was nowhere she could try to get away from them and she knew she wouldn't be able to outrun them. Her handgun was still in the car so she had no way to take them out without her being shot at first. 

There was an alleyway ahead of her, but as she turned down it there was no where to go. It was a dead end. The footsteps behind her grew louder and she knew this was it, she was dead. 

All she felt was a sharp pain on the back of her head and everything went black. 

~~

Lauren quickly pulled herself out of the memory of why she was there. She didn't know how long she had been here. It could have been hours, days, weeks, or months. She didn't know how long she had been passed out for. 

At least now she knew she was getting out of this place. The girl that was in the room with her was there to help, she hoped. She was also a Viper too, from somewhere near Texas by the way her tattoo looked. It wasn't much different from hers, only those who were a part of the Royal Vipers could tell the difference. 

They took the girl with them. She wasn't just any girl though, she was the King's daughter. This made Lauren freak out, mostly because the girl who saved her didn't hesitate on saying that she was coming with them. 

Lauren took the passenger side of the car they found and Camila was in the back. The girl still hadn't told them what her name was, and didn't seem to really care about sharing much about her since she had been mostly quiet. Lauren wondered why now was the time she decided to be quiet unlike how she was in the room. 

"Where are we going?" Camila was the first to speak up after twenty minutes of driving. "I hope you know my father is going to find me." 

"Miami." Lauren looked over to the shorter girl with wide eyes. "What, have an issue with Miami?" 

"You know me apparently so I'm guessing you know I'm from Miami, so yes I do have an issue with Miami." 

"Well you're just going to have to deal with it. I need to take her to Demi immediately since I don't know what else to do with her. Oh, I'm Ally by the way. I forgot to tell you earlier." 

Lauren didn't give any response, other than turning away from Ally to watch out the car window. The whole ride was silent, other than the occasional complaints from Camila about being stuck in the car for so long and that private airplanes are much better. From the minimal speaking, Lauren already hated her. 

She had always hated the rich, they took her home away along with causing her family to fall apart. They always talked about how much better their life was than those who didn't have much money, and Camila was doing exactly that. 

So she had to endure the complaints for three whole days. In those three days she stayed as quiet as she could, Lauren was never comfortable around strangers. It wasn't until they got near Miami that Lauren had to direct Ally to where she stayed since it was somewhat hidden. 

"I'm staying in the car," Lauren watched as familiar people passed by their car, unable to see her though because of the tinted windows. "You can go find Demi and I'll stay here with her." 

"You know this place better than me, you go find her." Lauren gave Ally a stern look, then turned to look at Camila to find her sleeping. She rolled her eyes before stepping out of the car. 

Lauren pulled up the hood of the jacket she got on the trip to hide her face. People probably already knew that she came back without Dinah and then left without speaking to anyone but Normani. It was probably a poor decision to speak to Normani out of all people. She most likely already told all of the people who had I higher position than Lauren, and it wasn't many people that had I higher position than her. 

There was a small crowd sitting around Demi. One of those sitting there was Normani, and she didn't look happy. Nobody looked happy. Demi had her usual stern expression but there was a small frown visible. 

"We have to do something about the both of them! Save Dinah and punish Lauren. You know we stick together as a family and family just doesn't leave someone behind like that." Lauren heard Normani yelling, one of those things she said was obviously a lie or Lauren wouldn't be here right now. 

"Yes, what Lauren did was wrong but we don't know where either of them are so we can't do anything." Demi's voice remained calm when she was talking to Normani. It was hard to remain calm when talking to Normani when she was yelling because she had some fire to her. 

"Lauren's in Miami, I saw her. How do you think I know all of this?" 

"I can't deal with this right now. Someone from San Antonio is here with an important delivery and I need to see what it is. We will talk later." Demi began walking towards the door, towards Lauren. She took a quick glance towards Lauren, but ignored her since she was unable to see her face. 

Lauren chose to follow her, keeping a distance so she wouldn't be heard. She kept the distance until they got into an empty hallway and quickly grabbed Demi by the wrist and pulled her into one of the storage closets. 

"What the fuck?" Lauren turned on the light and took off her hood, putting a distance between her and Demi. "Lauren?" 

"Before you start yelling at me or lock me up somewhere I need to explain something. Yes, I left without Dinah. That was only because I didn't know where she went. I didn't know what to do. I came back here and then some soldiers from the government took me. I got and came with the girl from San Antonio. We also have someone else with us you need to see." 

"I should throw you in a cell for leaving Dinah. This other person better be good or I might end up actually doing that." Lauren sighed out of relief and led Demi to the garage where Camila and Ally were. 

Ally was standing outside the car, a smirk growing on her face once she saw Lauren and Demi. She wasted no time for introductions, only quickly opening the door to the backseat and pulling Camila out of the car. 

“You guys... you guys got the Princess?”


	4. Part 3

Silence. Metal scratching against metal. More silence. 

Lauren hated this silence because it was an awkward silence, yet she still preferred that it was silent. It was best if the room stayed silent. She knew people were on the other side of the glass window listening to what was going on inside the room. 

So Lauren just stared at her reflection, knowing that someone was staring back. She figured it would be Demi since she was the one who put her in the interrogation room anyway. There was no reason for her to even be in the room in the first place. 

Only occasionally would she move her gaze from her reflection to Camila. She sat across the metal table from Lauren, her one hand handcuffed to the chair. Lauren only moved her gaze when she heard Camila moving in the chair. Her attention was once again brought to Camila when she pulled her hand away from the chair, trying to somehow break the handcuffs unsuccessfully. 

“Fuck.” Lauren rolled her eyes, but kept her eyes on Camila. “You don’t have to sit here and babysit me. Unless I find a way out of the handcuffs I’m not going anywhere.” 

Lauren said nothing and still kept her eyes on Camila. It wasn’t until that she noticed that Camila looked nothing like a princess would. She didn’t have the fancy dresses, she had ripped jeans and a crop top. She had multiple piercings, more than just her ears. She was also covered in tattoos. She has more than Lauren does, and Lauren already has a lot of them. The one that stood out the most to her was the one of what seemed to be a woman’s eye on her arm. It was the only one of the visible tattoos that had color. The eye was an emerald green color. 

“Can I ask you something?” Lauren turned her attention away from the tattoo to see Camila looking at her. 

“No.” 

“Why?” 

Lauren rolled her eyes, “I just said you can’t ask me a question.” 

“This is quite the place you guys have, very nice hospitality. Usually I get stuff served to me on a silver platter, but here? No I get handcuffed to a chair, which is the best treatment I got. Also, the greeting I got from you? Beyond perfect, never got a gun held to my head before. Why did you do that, hold a gun to my head but not shoot? I bet anyone else in here would have loved that opportunity.” Camila leaned so that she had the elbow of her free arm resting on the table between her and Lauren, a slight smirk on her face as she stared down Lauren. 

“If I knew you talked this much I should have shot you. I didn’t shoot you because you didn’t give me a reason too.” Lauren was now leaning her elbows on the table as well, matching Camila’s smirk. “At least you didn’t give me an actual reason yet.” 

“Lauren, leave her alone.” Demi’s voice came through the intercom, causing Lauren to lean back in her chair. 

“Can you let me out? I don’t get the point of you keeping me in here.” Lauren heard no answer, so she went back to what she was doing before. Instead of staring at her own reflection, she watched Camila staring down at her hands in her lap. 

~~

_2 Weeks Later_

Lauren was glad that Demi let her off the hook, somewhat. She wasn’t able to do jobs on the outside and majority of the time she was the one sent to watch on Camila. She hasn’t said anything to Lauren since they first brought her here other than asking for food or drink and to use the bathroom. It made Lauren’s days so boring and uneventful. She missed doing actual work. 

Normani wouldn't leave Lauren alone. She was always asking where Dinah was and Lauren always had no answer. Ally was still around, mostly because she was trying to figure out what to do about Camila. Everyone who knew of her presence was honestly shocked that nobody had come to try and find Camila. Lauren thought it was a miracle that they even had a place to stay for so long since many other places where Vipers lived had been found and destroyed. 

“Are you just going to sit there and watch me like I can leave for the rest of your life? It’s been two weeks, I can’t really do much.” This was the first time Camila really spoke to Lauren for the past two weeks. 

“I wish I could do something other than sit here. I was banned from doing stuff on the outside so here I am.” Camila said nothing in reply, noticing that Lauren didn’t want to talk. 

So Camila went back to being stuck in her own thoughts like she had been before. Most of them weren’t good thoughts. The one she thought about the most was about Lauren, and why she hadn’t killed her. She knew for sure if it was anyone else that found her she would be dead. People that associated with the Vipers were always after her family, but mostly her father. This was the closest she had gotten to the gang. 

Another constant thought she had was about her father. He barely fought to keep her safe from Lauren. He was distant once her mother left, and was never back to his normal self. She really wondered if he did care for her. Camila’s thoughts were interrupted by someone around her age that walked up to Lauren and took a seat next to her. 

“Who’s the hottie?” Lauren and Camila both rolled their eyes, Camila more because of annoyance and Lauren out of humor. 

“Don’t you have any respect for the royals of our great country?” Both of them smiled and Lauren slightly laughed. 

“Oh my bad, this is the precious princess. I forgot you and someone from Texas brought her here. You are missing someone though. Where’s Dinah?” Lauren’s smile quickly dropped, and Camila was confused since she never heard of this Dinah person. 

“I don’t know. Some soldiers near a road block took her and I panicked so I came back here without looking for her. Next thing I know some soldiers took me up north and I escaped with Ally.” Camila noticed a bit of simpathy in Lauren’s voice, but not much. 

Camila knew who she was talking about once Lauren said what happened. She knows where this Dinah is. She knew right away she wasn’t going to tell them, no matter how much it would go against her father. But they kidnapped her and locked her up so she wasn’t giving out free information. 

“Normani is going to kill you. You know she adores that girl and Dinah adores her right back, no matter how much they deny it.” 

“The guards should of taken care of you once they first caught you,” Camila quietly mumbled under her breath. She thought that they wouldn’t hear her but Lauren obviously did and she quickly sent a glare towards Camila. 

Shockingly Lauren didn’t have a snarky reply, usually she would if someone said something like that to her. The girl she was talking with awkwardly said her goodbyes and walked away, leaving the two alone. 

“Since you want to talk so much all of the sudden I have some questions for you. The first one is about you asking me about why I didn’t shoot you. I had a gun held to your head, so why didn’t you try to get out of my grip?” Camila gave her no answer, but kept eye contact with Lauren. “Your father didn’t seem to really fight for you either, why’s that? Does he not care about you?” 

Still no answer, but Lauren knew what she was doing so she could get an answer. She wasn’t told to interrogate Camila, she already was but it was unsuccessful, but she wanted to be the one to succeed and somehow break down the princess’s strong demeanor. 

“I’m sure he loves all of those tattoos you have, he seems to be very open about stuff like that. That’s just from what I’ve heard though, I may be wrong though. What about your mom, you know, the queen?” Lauren noticed that Camila’s expression had changed once she mentioned her mom. It wasn’t much of a change but it was noticeable. “I heard some rumors, that she left you alone with your father since you took up the life of a snobby rich girl. I also heard that you have a little sister. There was this other thing I heard also,” Lauren smirked and stood up, walking towards the metal bars that kept Camila in the small room. “I heard that she died, along with your sister. Is that true?” 

Camila quickly stood up and walked up to the metal bars where Lauren was standing. “It’s one thing to talk about my asshole father, I don’t care that you do that. I don’t care that you talk shit about me. The moment you talk about my mother and my sister, that’s when you better watch your ass. I may not remember them but my mother was the only one who seemed to care for me.” 

Lauren laughed, “what are you going to do from inside of there? If I’m correct, I’m the one with the keys to here, you’re not. Also, I’m the one with the gun. I don’t sympathize with you because you lost your mother and sister.” 

Lauren knew it was somewhat a lie. She at least knew what it was like to lose her family, but she lost more than Camila did. She lost her parents and her two siblings. She lost her home. Camila lost her mother and sister. She didn’t lose her home, she got a huge mansion. She didn’t lose all of her possessions, she got more than she could have ever wanted. Lauren hated her for that, and she decided to put the blame for everything bad that had happened to her on Camila. 

~~

”We need to find Dinah. They have her and you can’t say that they don’t.” Normani had been persistent about finding Dinah. Every time Demi had some sort of meeting she was there. 

“I know we need to find her Normani, but we have bigger issues. The princess is locked up here and we have no idea what to do with her or how to get her to talk.” Demi was getting stressed with everything that was happening. First Dinah is lost and next the person who lost her brings back the Princess of the United States. 

“You can send a small search party for her. It’s not like we need to send people somewhere else to handle the princess being here. She’s being guarded all the time so she isn’t going anywhere. It’s been two weeks and nobody has been looking for her. To be honest, I don’t even think her father even cared for her by the way he acted when I got to her and Lauren.” Ally was the first to speak up from the group. She knew how to make decisions, she took a leadership role early on in her life back in Texas. 

“If we do the search party I get to lead it. Lauren, Vero, and Lucy will come with me. We also get to bring the princess for negotiating but we won’t give her away.”

Demi rolled her eyes at Normani’s request. “You hate Jauregui why do you want her to go with?” 

“She got us into this mess so she’s going to get us out of it.” 

“What are the other locations saying about this?” Demi ignored Normani, other than giving her a slight nod, then turned her attention to Ally. 

“I haven’t got in contact with anyone else. I figured it would be best if we keep this quiet. If you need an extra hand for searching, I know how to get to the place me and Lauren were held at. I’m willing to help.” 

“Go get everyone then. I’m giving you two weeks. If you don’t find her or any clue as to where she is you guys better come back here. I’m not losing anyone else.” 

Normani and Ally walked out of the small room and made their way to where Lauren was watching Camila. As they rounded the corner they saw Lauren and Camila staring at each other, a small space divided them where the metal bars were. Lauren quickly stepped away once she saw the two of them walking towards her. 

“Do you know where Vero and Lucy are?” 

“Vero was just here. I don’t know where Lucy is. Why?” Lauren glanced towards Ally with a confused look but turned her attention back to Normani quickly after. 

“Demi said we can get a search party out for Dinah but a small one. We need to find Vero and Lucy so we can go because they are joining us.” 

“I never agreed to this. You and Dinah are the same, always volunteering me for shit I don’t want to do.”  

“You got us into this mess so you’re coming with. Princess is coming too.” Normani grabbed the keys that were sitting on a chair and unlocked the door, allowing Camila out. 

“Why is she coming with?” Lauren asked as she put handcuffs on Camila. She made sure to tighten them more than necessary while smirking at her. 

“Just in case we need her. We don’t have much time so forget finding Vero and Lucy. We can have them do something else that might be helpful.” 

Ally led them to the car that her and Lauren arrived in. Normani quickly got into the passenger seat, leaving Lauren in the back with Camila. Once the car was loaded with necessities Ally got into the front seat. 

“This job is going to be hell.”


	5. Part 4

“What are we going to do about her?” 

“I don’t know. We’ve never been this close before.” 

“Let’s make her one of us.” 

“You’re crazy. That would never work.” 

“If we put her with the right person it might work. We at least have to try.” 

“So, we have her follow someone around?” 

“Not just follow, we have that person train her somehow. We have time to think about how to do this.” 

* * *

Lauren hated being in cars for a long period of time. She could only it when she was the one driving or she was able to sleep. Neither of those were possible in her current situation. Ally was the one driving and she had to share the backseat. She wasn’t usually able to sleep unless she was laying across the backseat, and she wasn’t about to be close to Camila at all. Somehow the younger girl was able to sleep though, along with Normani. 

They have only been in the car for about an hour, and had another seventeen hours until they got to Pittsburgh. Ally told Lauren that they were kept somewhere near Pittsburgh so that’s where they would be going. A few stops would be made on the way at smaller government places to see if anymore of their people were being held. 

Lauren looked to her right, seeing Camila asleep. This was the most calm and peaceful she seemed since Lauren met her. Lauren turned away to look out the window when she felt the car stop quickly, causing both Normani and Camila to wake up. 

“I thought most of the roadblocks were out because of you.” The first roadblock that Lauren remembered taking out was fully running, despite the building that was falling apart. 

“They’re suppose to be out still. I’ll go check it out from the side, see if there’s a way around.” Nobody had time to argue with Lauren before she was out of the car and jogging to a fence that she could easily hide behind. 

“Was she locked up because of the roadblocks? I heard that a lot were destroyed but I didn’t know how or why.”

Normani turned around to look at Camila with an expression she couldn’t read. “Since when do you care what happens outside your mansion full of everything you need and more?” 

“Damn, I was just asking.” Camila leaned back in her seat as she quietly mumbled under her breath, “you don’t know shit about me.” 

“Would you like to say something to my face?” 

“Nope.” 

Before Camila and Normani could go at each other anymore, Lauren returned. She quickly went back into her seat next to Camila and motioned for Ally to drive around everyone in front of them. 

“What’s going on with the roadblock?” Camila spoke up next to Lauren, earning another grade from Normani while Lauren didn’t even take a glance towards her. 

“Trying to build it back up and security is really weak right now so we can get around.” 

Normani quickly turned to Lauren, “they better not be shooting as us as we drive around or I’ll kill you myself Jauregui.”

”It can’t be that bad there’s like three guards there and there’s four of us.” 

“You’re gonna let Princess over here handle a gun?” 

“Hell no. Last time I was with you and people started shooting at us and you had a little panic attack and then I got shot in the leg because of you.” 

Lauren rolled her eyes, “like you weren’t panicking either. We were told no guns at the meeting and here they were, guns and all shooting at us.” 

“You still panicked the most, it was before they even started shooting actually.” 

“I’m sorry that I got concerned when people aimed their guns at me when I had none myself.” 

“If you guys argue any longer I’m going to kick both of you out of this car and do this myself.” 

Lauren and Normani became silent as Ally spoke up from the drivers seat. Lauren rolled her eyes and saw Camila smirking from the corner of her eyes, causing her to roll her eyes again. 

It wasn’t for another five hours until they got out of the car for a stop, and they were still in Florida. They had made it to Jacksonville, Florida, where they would be making their first stop at a place they thought had more of their members held by the government. Before they stopped they did agree on resting at a nearby motel for a few hours, allowing them to sleep and eat. 

Only two rooms were available, so Ally and Normani would share a room and so would Lauren and Camila. Lauren decided not to argue with anyone else so she quickly walked up to her room, not caring if Camila was following or not. 

“Don’t look at us, you’re sharing with her.” Camila rolled her eyes at Normani and Ally before she started following Lauren. She barely got to the room before the door shut, only being able to stop it with her foot. 

Camila shut the door behind her and watched Lauren make herself comfy on the bed. Unsure of what to do, Camila slowly walked over to the other bed and sat down on it. Lauren clearly wasn’t going to pay attention to Camila as she laid on the bed and stared at the roof. 

She watched Lauren lay there for a few minutes. She did nothing but lay their and stare at the roof while Camila watched her. Camila caught herself staring at the little bit of green she could see of Lauren’s eyes, but quickly looked away when Lauren got up and looked towards her. 

“You gonna do anything other than sit there and pretend like you weren’t staring at me for the past ten minutes?” 

Camila kept quiet, but turned to look at Lauren again. This time Lauren was sitting up on the bed looking at her with a smirk. Lauren’s smirk dropped when she met Camila’s eyes. 

Lauren sighed, “I’m guessing you aren’t one to talk to people so I just won’t talk either.” 

“Just because you hate my father doesn’t mean you need to hate me, we aren’t the same person.” 

“Oh, so you aren’t the person that went over national television saying that you support everything that your father has done and then will continue to support in the future?” 

“That was a year ago.” 

Lauren chuckled, “there’s no difference on when that was, you are still the one that said those things.” 

“Would I change your mind if I say I don’t support him or even like to consider him my father?” 

“No, because I wouldn't believe that even for a second.” Lauren laid back down on the bed and quickly glanced towards Camila. “I’m going to sleep, you should too.” 

Lauren woke up to a loud knocking on the motel door. As she rolled over she noticed that the bed next to her was empty, but heard running water from the bathroom so she knew Camila didn’t take the chance of running off. After taking a few seconds to wake up she walked to the door and opened it to see Ally standing in front of her with two coffees. 

“Really considerate of you to wake me up so early that the sun isn’t even out. At least you bring coffee.” 

Ally quickly walked past her and set the coffees down before turning back around to face Lauren. Only now did Lauren notice the angry expression on her face. 

“Someone wake you up too early also?” 

“We have an issue, two actually. The car is gone so I had to walk to get us coffee because the motel coffee machine is broken. Along with the car missing Normani is also missing.” 

“I have good news, Princess didn’t try to escape while I was sleeping.” 

Camila must have heard Lauren say her name because she slowly walked out from the bathroom with only a towel wrapped around her body. Lauren looked at her and let her eyes travel up and down Camila’s body before she felt something hit her knee, almost causing her to fall. 

“What the fuck?” 

“Keep it in your pants and focus Jauregui. Did you hear anything I said?” 

“Just that Normani and the car is missing.” 

“I should have left you once we got out of wherever they were keeping us.” Ally turned around to still see Camila standing by the bathroom watching them. “I’m about to leave her with you I can’t stand this right now.” 

“I wouldn’t want to be with her either.” 

“Since when did you two get along?” Lauren raised her eyebrows at Ally and Camila as Ally began to respond. 

“I haven’t known you for that long and I’m pretty sure you can’t focus on anything important but can you at least focus this one time, your friend is missing.” 

“Normani isn’t my friend, neither is Dinah. Both of them have always been bitches. I’ll focus just for you though.” 

Ally let out a sigh of relief, “thank you. First we need to find a car and some weapons because most of ours were in the car. Do the cars you guys keep have tracking in them?” 

“Not that I know of. I don’t think weapons will be an issue though.” Lauren pulled out a bag from under the bed and opened it, showing Ally the guns that were in it. There was more than enough for the both of them. 

“You can get a car, I’ll stay up here see if I can get in contact with Demi about how to find Normani.” 

“What about Camila?” Ally turned around to see Camila now fully dressed and carefully watching the two women in front of her. 

“Take her with you.” 

“She can stay up here, you aren’t going anywhere.” 

“Then why did you ask? She’s going with you even though I’m staying here.” 

“Fine.” Lauren took a handgun from the bag, making sure it was loaded before turning towards Camila. “Come on.” 

Camila quickly followed behind her as they made their way to the front lobby of the motel. It was a somewhat rundown place, somewhere that Camila wouldn’t be recognized and the people there knew the power that the Royal Vipers hold. Locals gave people like Lauren and Ally respect for who they are, unlike if they went to a well maintained area. 

The lobby was basically empty, other than a middle-aged woman reading a paper and the person who worked the front desk. The woman didn’t even look up at the two of them when they walked in but the guy at the desk, who looked to be around Lauren’s age, looked nervous as they walked in and approached him. 

“You shouldn’t be here.” He looked even more nervous as he stared at Lauren’s tattoo and she quickly noticed. 

“Look, all we need is a car then we will leave.” 

“I-I don’t have a car. I’m not trying to cause an issue but y-you need to leave, especially cause she’s with you.” Knowing he was talking about her, Camila looked between Lauren and him, giving them both a confused look. 

“What is he talking about?” 

“They’re here, looking for her. That’s all I can say.” He leaned a bit closer and whispered, “there are guards on the other side of that door to your left. They know you’re here now and they are most likely waiting for a perfect moment to strike, they know how well trained Vipers are.” 

Lauren didn’t say anything and grabbed Camila by the wrist. She grabbed the handgun she always had with her and began running towards the exit. She heard multiple people behind her shouting about being careful to not hit the Princess and then gunshots. Lauren was too focused on getting out of there to fire any shots back. 

Just as they got to the doors, Camila fell and let out a cry from pain. Lauren didn’t have time to see what happen and picked up Camila and carried her out of the lobby. Somehow, and to their luck, Ally had got a car. As soon as she saw Lauren carrying Camila she hopped out of the drivers seat and opened the back door and put the seats down so they would have more space in the back. Ally helped her put Camila in the car before getting back to the drivers seat and speeding away, leaving the guards in the parking lot of the motel. 

“Lauren what happened to her?” Ally looked back at Lauren who was doing something to Camila’s leg. 

“Well she’s bleeding a lot and got shot in her leg. What do I do?” 

Camila quickly sat up, which was followed by a moan of pain. “What do you mean? You don’t know what to do when someone gets shot? You work with the Vipers you should know what you’re doing!” 

“Oh, I’m sorry Princess but I’m not a doctor.” 

“Lauren take your shirt and tie it above where she got shot, it helps the bleeding.” 

Lauren took off her shirt and began tying it around Camila’s leg. Camila couldn’t help herself but to watch Lauren take off her shirt and then look at her abs and multiple tattoos. She quickly looked away and down at her leg when she felt Lauren done tying the shirt around her leg. 

“Now what?” 

“Is there an exit wound also?” 

Lauren looked at Camila’s leg, she saw an entrance wound but no exit. “No it’s still in her leg.” 

“O-okay just use something to put pressure on it for now.” 

Lauren looked around the back of the car and found nothing. Her eyes landed on Camila and saw she was getting paler and was barely able to keep her eyes open. Lauren used the back of her hand and lightly tapped Camila’s cheek a few times. 

“Stay awake Princess.” She then moved up to the front where Ally was focusing on the road. “We need to get her to a hospital or some type of doctor. She lost to much blood already she can barely stay awake.” 

“We can’t take her to a hospital or doctor. They’re going to recognize her in a second.” 

“So we just let her bleed out in the back of a car? There’s a hospital right there just go to it.” Ally didn’t answer her but did turn into the hospital parking lot to which Lauren let out a sigh of relief. “I’ll go inside and talk to them.” 

“With no shirt on? I’ll go inside, we know what happened last time you tried to talk to someone for something. Make sure she stays awake.” 

Lauren watched Ally walk into the hospital as she moved back to where Camila was. This time when Lauren looked at Camila she didn’t look away. Lauren didn’t think much of it because Camila was somewhat out of it since she was in a lot of pain. 

“You got shot in the leg before, right?” 

Lauren chuckled at how Camila’s words slurred, at least she was awake, she thought. “Mhm.” 

“It hurts like a bitch.” 

“Yeah, it does. It’s going to hurt much more when they take that bullet out. I just needed a few stitches cause mine went right through.” 

“Why are you being nice now? You’ve been a bitch up until I got hurt.” 

“Because you most likely won’t remember much of this because you are acting high because of the pain.” Lauren moved so she was looking out the back window towards the hospital. 

Ally had been in longer than she should have been. It would have taken Lauren two minutes at most to get someone to help. She was tempted to see what was taking so long but she couldn’t leave Camila in the car by herself. 

It took Ally a total of twenty minutes for her to come back with a few nurses and a stretcher. Lauren sighed out of relief because she was over hearing Camila ramble on about random things that she couldn’t even understand. 

Once Ally reached the car Lauren put Camila on the stretcher and followed the nurses into the hospital. Ally handed her a hoodie, to which Lauren gave her a questioning look. 

“You’re not wearing a shirt and to cover your tattoo.” Lauren nodded and put the hoodie on. 

“What did you tell them?” 

“I told them that the three of us were talking a walk by my house and nearby shots were fired by someone we don’t know. A bullet somehow hit my friends leg and we got into my car and brought her here. Let’s just hope they don’t recognize her.” 

They took Camila to a private room and began working on her leg. One of the nurses told them that they would have to wait outside until they were done. 

After an hour, a nurse came out and said they were allowed in to see Camila. They also said she would have to stay overnight, which Lauren and Ally both knew it wasn’t going to happen. 

As they walked into the room, Lauren quickly spotted a wheelchair and grabbed it while Ally began attaching the bag of morphine to it. Lauren carefully moved Camila into the chair and adjusted it so her leg was elevated. 

Luckily nurses barely came down the hallway they were in because there was only one room. There was also an exit door right next to it that lead to the parking lot. What they didn’t realize was that there was an alarm on that door, so they had to run to the car while Lauren was pushing Camila in the wheelchair. 

“Where are we going to?” 

“I don’t know. We need to find Normani and Dinah and we don’t even know where they went.” Ally turned onto the highway, and luckily that roadblock was still out. 

“And what are we doing with Camila?” 

“Oh, I meant to tell you. I talked to Demi about that quickly while you were attempting to get a car.” Ally looked back at Lauren nervously through the review mirror. “Demi talked to a few people and they said they want to make Camila a Viper. They want to do that by having someone train her and have her follow them around or something, she didn’t go into details really.” 

“Did they say who that person is?” 

“Yeah they did, they have two options they though of. Someone in New Jersey and you.” 

“You’re joking. You have to be joking.” Lauren looked at Ally, and she had a serious face. “You’re not joking are you.” 

“I’m not. Look, it’s not for sure it’s just a thought. I wasn’t even suppose to tell you this but I thought I would give you a heads up about it so you wouldn’t be to shocked when you found out.” 

Ally looked at Lauren through the mirror again, shocked to see a calm look on her face. She had a calm look on her face and slowly nodded a few times. A bit later, Ally looked back again and saw that Camila was still sleeping and Lauren had fallen asleep. 

* * *

Ally stopped in Georgia, where in Georgia, she did not know. She stopped at the first motel she saw that wasn’t in a big city. Inside didn’t seem too suspicious, it was about to same as the motel in Jacksonville. Except this time she made sure there was nobody there trying to kill them. Ally when back to the car to wake up both Camila and Lauren. 

“Lauren. Lauren. Lauren!” Lauren jumped awake when Ally yelled and punched her arm. 

“What the fuck?” 

“Get up. I got us rooms for tonight, we’re somewhere in Georgia.” Lauren rubbed her eyes and stretched, accidentally hitting Camila in the arm which caused her to wake up. 

“Come on Princess, we got actual beds to sleep on. Let’s hope they are comfier than the last ones.” Lauren helped Camila out of the car and into the wheelchair. 

Ally handed Lauren the key to the room when they reached the rooms. After she did so, Ally quickly went into her room without saying a word to either of them. Lauren didn’t care that much and Camila just figured she was tired. Once inside the room Lauren figures out why she didn’t say anything, the room only had one bed that had barely enough space for two people. 

“Of course,” Lauren quietly mumbled so Camila couldn’t hear. 

After Lauren helped Camila into the bed, she began making her own on the chair. Camila watched her make the bed and then saw her trying her best to get comfortable in it but was unsuccessful. 

“I don’t mind sharing the bed. I’ll stay on my side.” 

“I’m fine staying here. I probably won’t sleep anyway.” Lauren didn’t want to admit that she wanted to sleep and that the bed would be more comfortable. She moved around in the chair a few more times before giving up and turning the light off. 

“Can I ask you something?” 

“You just did.” 

Camila ignored what she said and began asking her question anyway. “I didn’t hear the whole conversation between you and Ally, but is it true that someone wants to make me a member of the Vipers?” 

Lauren didn’t know how to answer. She could lie, but it would be obvious if she did. Telling the truth might make it harder for Camila to work with them in any way. She did already know the truth, so Lauren decided it wouldn’t hurt to tell her. “Yeah, they do.” 

“And they want someone, you or someone else, to train me or whatever it is you do?” 

“Yep.” 

Camila let out a sigh, “tell whoever it was that I’ll join, as long as it’s you training me.” Lauren sat up in shock, even though she didn’t know if Camila was telling the truth. “I also think I have an idea that could get us to my father.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for taking so long to update. I have been busy with school and was somewhat focusing on future parts of this story before I wrote this chapter so I can begin setting up those future chapters. 
> 
> Thank you for reading as always!
> 
> ~C


	6. Part 5

Sleeping in a chair wasn’t Lauren’s favorite. When she woke up her neck and back were sore and as much as she wanted to complain she didn’t. She did, however, want to complain to Ally about putting her in a room with Camila that only had one bed. So she decided she would do that while Camila was still asleep. 

“Allyson!” Lauren knocked on the door loudly, but stopped when one of the cleaners walked by and glared at her. 

The door opened to an angry looking Ally. “Do you have to be so loud? I’m on the phone with Demi.” 

“I don’t care. A room with only one bed, really?” 

Ally rolled her eyes, “come inside. We should talk to her about the thing we discussed in the car.” 

“Should I get Camila? She heard by the way and agreed for some reason. I don’t believe it though.” Ally shook her head no and grabbed Lauren by the wrist to pull her inside the room. 

“Demi, Lauren actually just got here. She knows about the plan with Miss Cabello.” 

“I thought we weren’t telling anyone about that yet until we made a final decision?” 

“I know, I’m sorry. It was an accident.” 

Lauren grabbed the phone from Ally so she could speak to Demi. “Turns out Cabello heard also when Ally thought she was asleep. It also appears that she agreed to whatever it was you said, not exactly sure if she understood everything because she was high off of morphine or Percocet or something, but she agreed. On top of that Princess thinks she has a plan to get to her father.” 

“A few things, why was she high off of some pain medicine?” Lauren looked to Ally, she figured that as much as she can talk sometimes that she would have told Demi about what happened. 

“Funny story, she got shot in the leg. Don’t worry though, she’s fine.” 

“As much as I’ve wanted to be mad at you lately Lauren I’m going to stay calm.” Lauren heard Demi sigh on the other line before continuing. “Okay so, you said she agrees to become one of us?” 

“Yep, said it last night. Still might have been high on pain medicine though.” 

“And her plan?” 

“She didn’t say what it was. Just that it was a way to get to her father. I didn’t keep talking about it with her because I’d rather not talk to her and I don’t know if she’s telling the truth.” 

Both sides we silent for awhile. Lauren glanced awkwardly between Ally and the phone while Ally stared at the phone. After a few more minutes Demi spoke up. 

“Okay well, this won’t be as much as our problem because a few of us decided to take her to New Jersey to stay there.” 

“New Jersey?” Lauren grabbed the phone and took it off speaker then walked outside. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to send her to New Jersey.” 

“You have the position to be saying this why?” 

“Her father has more control up north, meaning we have less power up there. We have the most power in Miami. If you were, let’s say kidnapping someone, wouldn’t you want them far away from who you took them from?” 

“Well the person in New Jersey already agreed to take her and do what we asked her to do.” 

“You didn’t even ask me. Ally told me you were considering me.” Lauren paused for a moment and took a deep breath. “Do you trust me?” 

“No.” 

“Can you trust me when I say I can do this better than New Jersey?” 

“Probably not.” 

“Okay, cool so she’s staying in Miami.” 

“You’re going to be the death of me Lauren.” Demi continued talking but Lauren ignored her when she heard the room door opening and saw Camila attempt to walk out and stand next to her. “Lauren are you even paying attention?” 

“Yeah I’m paying attention.” 

“What did I just say?” 

“You asked if i was paying attention.” Demi sighed for what Lauren thought was the hundredth time in the past five minutes. “Hey, Camila’s here. Why don’t we ask her if she prefers being in Miami or New Jersey.” 

“Lauren that’s unnecessary we don’t care what she thinks if I’m being honest.” 

Lauren didn’t hear her say that and put the phone on speaker. “So Princess, you prefer Miami or New Jersey?” 

“Both have beaches that I’ll never go to. Miami stays warm during winter so Miami.” 

“There, it’s settled she’s staying in Miami.” 

“Lauren-“ 

“As much as I don’t like her I think it’s safer that she stays in Miami.” 

“I’ll think about it. Come back to Miami for now.” Before Lauren could comment, Demi hung up. 

“Glad to know you don’t like me.” 

“Oh no, you got it wrong. I’m just making it seem like I don’t like you when in reality I’m totally in love with you.” Lauren smiled at her and walked into the hotel room to get dressed so they can go back to Miami. 

Lauren was glad to go back to Miami. Even though it was still full of bad memories, it was a place she would always go back to. Lauren was also glad that she didn’t have to go searching for Normani and Dinah. She did feel bad for Dinah though if she was still held by the Camila’s father. Lauren had no idea what they would do to her and would rather not think about it. 

* * *

It didn't take long for them to reach Miami again. Lauren and Ally took turns driving this time so they didn’t have to stay anywhere overnight. Demi was the first to greet them as they arrived. 

Lauren was out of the car first with Camila following her. “Don’t worry I already know what you’re going to say. I will be in the room and bring her with me so you can talk to us.” 

“I’m not talking to her, you are. You’re the one teaching her how we run this place.” Lauren stared at Demi blankly as she motion for both of them to go to small meeting room. 

“Please don’t make this as awkward as the first time you brought me in here.” Camila followed Lauren into the small room. 

It was similar to the one she was in when she first arrived in Miami but this time nobody was standing on the other side of a glass window listening to them. Also, Camila wasn’t handcuffed to a chair in an awkward silence with Lauren. 

“If you tell me about your plan this won’t be awkward.” Camila took the seat across from Lauren and tapped her fingers on the table. 

“You’re not going to like it. Especially since I thought of it while I was on a lot of pain medicine and half asleep.” 

“Just tell me what it is so I can get out of this room and don’t have to be around people.” 

“So, since I’ve known my father since I was well born, I know that he isn’t the best at remember things. Especially people. That means most likely he won’t remember seeing you a few weeks ago. As long as you dressed like you’re suppose to be hanging out with people like me.” 

“Oh so you’re saying I don’t look good this way?” Lauren smirked as she interrupted Camila. 

“No I’m not saying that. You... you look uh, great the way you are now but uh that’s not how uh people dress when they hang out at my house.” 

“So now you’re saying I’m hot?” 

Camila groaned, “no, forget it.” Lauren smiled when she saw the blush on Camila’s face. “Back to my plan. Like I said, you won’t like it. I’m going to leave out details but basically my father doesn’t like me hanging out with certain people. You are an example of the type of people he doesn’t want me with. I was thinking you can act like my friend or to really piss him off you can act as my girlfriend.” 

Camila spoke the last part quietly so Lauren was unable to hear her. “Act as your what?” 

“Friend or girlfriend.” 

“Why would I do that?” 

“I told you that you wouldn’t like the idea. I don’t know how else to get you to my father, I know you guys want him dead.” 

Lauren paced back and forth in front of Camila. Every so often she would stop like she was about to say something but then continued pacing. This continued for ten minutes until she finally sat back down in front of Camila. 

“I have rules for this. First, I’m not kissing you. Second, don’t act like I’m the love of your life or all clingy because I hate that shit. Third, if this ends up getting me killed I’m going to somehow get back at you or haunt you while I’m in hell.” 

“Those are agreeable. I also have rules. Don’t call me Princess anymore. If I ask you to do something in front of someone with authority you have to do it, but that’s technically not my rule it’s more of a thing of respect at my home. Obviously don’t mention that you are with the Royal Vipers. If my father asks if he met you before say something like you’re sure he’s met many people before he’s probably confusing you with someone else.” Lauren held out her hand which Camila quickly shook. 

“Sounds like a deal Princess.” 

* * *

“That’s a terrible idea.” Camila and Lauren told Demi about their plan after they discussed a few of the finer details in private. “It’s going to get you killed. You have a tattoo that’s going to instantly show that you are a Viper.” 

“It’s somewhat a terrible idea but it gets us close to him. If they figure out that I am I have a plan of what I’m going to say and Camila will back me up on it. Besides, I’ll wear long sleeve shirts or just wear some type of jacket whenever I’m around people.” 

“You’re sure this isn’t some trap?” Lauren thought about this also, she obviously had no idea if it was or not. 

“We just have to trust her.” 

“You can never trust a Cabello.” 

“You sure that’s a smart thing to say I’m the presence of multiple Royal Vipers that have to report to people with a higher status than yours?” 

“Fuck off.” Demi tossed Lauren a set of car keys and then slid a folder over to her. “Keys to a car and papers that will get you through roadblocks and any other random check points safely.” 

Lauren flipped through the papers, most of them said that it was confidential as to why Camila was out. A few other papers said that her father had sent her to small meetings to handle confidential business.

“When do you plan on leaving?”

“Tomorrow morning. She said that her home is somewhere in New York but didn’t say specifically where. You put the GPS tracker in the car?” Demi nodded in response. “Okay, I should get some sleep before we leave.” 

“Be safe. I know I never say this but you are one of the best we got here. You handle your business, in questionable ways, but you get it done.” 

“Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.” 

* * *

Lauren was up before almost everybody that lived there. Everyone was usually up when there was some light outside. Usually she slept until it was about noon, but she was unable to sleep. Her thoughts kept wondering to Camila’s plan and if they were going to actually pull it off. She needed a distraction, and it wasn’t hard for her to find one because of Lucy Vives. 

Lucy always had a thing for Lauren. It was obvious to everyone. Lauren use to have a thing for her but she would never admit it. Their relationship consisted of either drunk hook ups or hooking up because they needed a distraction. Which is exactly what Lauren needed. 

A hook up with Lucy always ended in the same way. Lauren would try to leave without her knowing but would always get caught. Lucy would ask why she’s leaving and Lauren would say she has business to handle. Most of the time that wasn’t true except for this time. Lucy knew she was being serious this time. 

“You know you could send one of the guys with her, any of them would love to get into her pants.” 

“She said that she needed a specific person to go and that person was me. I have to do this. I’m not doing it to get in her pants, I’m doing it because I want to get rid of her father.” 

Lauren finished getting dressed and left without another word. Before meeting Camila and Vero she had to stop and get her bag of clothes and weapons. She figured she wouldn’t be able to take them anywhere near Camila’s home but she’d rather not go anywhere without them. Once she got to the car Camila was already in the front passenger seat with all the necessary papers Demi had given them. Lauren quickly said goodbye to Vero before joining Camila in the drivers seat and beginning their drive to New York. 

“We need to know stuff about each other so we make this convincing.” Camila spoke up about an hour into the drive. 

“I’m Lauren. I’m eighteen. My parents abandoned me when I was 12 and I’m not going to talk about it anymore than that. I’ve been with the Vipers since I was 15.” 

“I can only say two of those things.” Camila sighed, “we have to make up something for you. You’re eighteen. You left your parents at let’s say sixteen. You got caught by the Vipers and was forced to join them. You hated it with them. I arrived to the same place as you were at. Luckily you got in charge of watching over me. One night you saw a chance to escape. Since you are a sympathetic person you helped me escape also and here we are now.” 

“How is that going to tie in with you being my fake girlfriend?” 

“We built a friendship while you watched over me and then that friendship grew into more than just that.” 

Lauren quickly glanced over at Camila. “How are you so good with coming up with lies so quick?” 

“It’s something you have to do when you disagree with your father on everything but he makes you go in front of people to say you agree with him.” 

Neither of them spoke for awhile. Camila didn’t want to talk about herself. She wasn’t prepared to tell Lauren everything. At the same time, Lauren didn’t care to know. Occasionally she did think about asking Camila what she needed to know about her. Every time she went to ask her she realized exactly who was in the car with her. The daughter of the King who ruined her life and millions of others. 

After ten hours of driving Lauren decided it would be time for them to stop. They ended up in some nice hotel in South Carolina. Camila insisted that they stayed at a nicer one because the ones they stayed at previously were dirty and smelled weird. Too tired to argue back, Lauren agreed and drove them to the closest hotel that Camila recommended. 

“Isn’t this much better than your place in Miami?” The hotel lobby was bright, with multiple chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and the light from them reflecting off the tile floor. The workers that Lauren could see in the lobby were wearing dressy clothes, along with some of the people who were staying there. 

“I feel underdressed.” Lauren was only in ripped black jeans, a white shirt, and a bomber jacket which was her favorite. 

“You look fine.” Lauren honestly wasn’t shocked that Camila would say that. She was better dressed than Lauren. “Let’s go up to the room before anyone that works here recognizes me.” 

“We haven’t checked in yet.” 

“Don’t have to.” Camila led Lauren to an elevator where Camila swiped a card that was in her pocket. 

“Where did you get that?” 

“I always have this in my pocket.” 

“I searched you when we got here, you didn’t have that on you. Where did you get it.” 

“I just told you, I had it in my pocket. You didn’t do that great of a job apparently.” 

The ride in the elevator seemed to take forever. Lauren figured it was because of the silence. She then later realized that they were going to the top floor. She glanced at Camila, but she wasn’t paying attention and was instead fixing her hair in the reflection of the elevator door. 

Once the elevator dinged, Camila stood properly and straightened out her clothing. Lauren grabbed her by the wrist so she was unable to leave the elevator when the door opened. 

“Am I meeting him now? This seems a little bit to fancy for a one night stay.” Camila said nothing, waiting for Lauren to let go of her arm but she didn’t. “Great, you’re not talking now.” 

Camila pulled her arm from Lauren’s grasp then reached to her waist to take the handgun and then to Lauren’s back pocket to take her phone. “I’ll be taking these for now.” 

“Excuse me, but you don’t have any control over me. Give them back.” Lauren followed Camila into the large hotel room. Of course it was a penthouse style room, Lauren thought. 

“Actually I do.” 

“Don’t pull any of the Prin-“ Lauren paused when she saw a few nicely dressed women sitting around a table playing some sort of card game. She could easily smell the weed they were smoking and the large piles of money on the table. “What the fuck is this?” 

She made sure to keep her voice down so only Camila could hear, but she wasn’t even paying attention. Instead she was paying attention to a safe. Lauren could barely keep up with how many different codes she had to enter before it opened and she placed both the gun and the phone inside. 

“Come with me.” Lauren could do nothing but follow Camila down a hallway. “Welcome to my penthouse. Any word of this gets out to my father or any of his people when you meet him I will kill you. Not as nice as you thought?” 

“Oh I knew you were a bitch. I’m not fazed by anything about you yet.” They stopped outside one of the various rooms that Lauren guesses were bedrooms. 

“You can stay in this room, so go knock yourself out. I’m going to have some me time.” Camila used her card again to open the door for Lauren. “Oh, you also won’t be able to open the door cause it’s an automatic lock and only unlocks from the outside. If you need anything there’s a button by the bed someone will come get you whatever you need.” 

The door was shut before Lauren could say anything. While Lauren was staring at the door, Camila was walking back to the dining area where everyone else was. Not many people stayed here, it was usually her friends which we daughters of her fathers friends. Camila would actually not even consider them friends, they were just people with money that were easy to hang out with. All she had to do was act like she agrees with them on anything they say. 

The first thing she did when she walked out to them was grab one of the already made joints and light it. None of them seemed to pay attention to her which she didn’t mind. It allowed her to peacefully lay down on the couch for some time. It didn’t take long for that peace to be interrupted. 

“Where have you been Cabello?” She knee this would come up and was definitely not explain it to them when she should be sleeping. 

“Long story.” 

“Who was that girl?” 

“Long story.” Another question was about to be asked but Lauren had apparently pressed the button Camila told her about. 

“Damn, you put her in that room?” As she walked way Camila flicked them off which made a few of them laugh. She couldn’t wait until she wasn’t forced to see them anymore, which probably wasn’t going to happen for awhile. 

“What?” 

“I’m hungry.” Camila saw Lauren sitting on the bed, her legs crossed with a smile on her face. 

“So?” 

“I want something to eat. I didn’t starve you down in Miami.” 

Camila left without responding and walked to the kitchen. She found two of the chefs cleaning for the night since it was late. They immediately stopped when they were doing and turned all their attention to her. 

“Make two meals. When they’re ready let me know please, I’ll take them where they need to go.” 

“Miss Cabello, would you like anything in particular?” 

Camila thought for a few seconds before answering, “it doesn’t matter what it is. Bring a bottle of wine with it also. I’ll be in room 7, So delivery it there actually.” 

Back in room 7, Lauren was sitting exactly where she was when Camila came in. She figured that Camila just ignored her so she kept pressing the button until someone came to her room. It only took five minutes for someone to open the door, and it wasn’t Camila. 

“Listen, I don’t know who you are but you’re being annoying with that button.” 

“Camila told me to press it if I need anything so that’s what I’m doing.” Just to annoy the person more, Lauren presses the button and kept her finger on the button so the buzzing noise continued. 

“Taylor, I’m gonna try my best to be polite about this. Move and leave her alone.” Camila pushed pass Taylor and sat down in the chair in Lauren’s temporary room. “You can shut the door on your way out.” 

Once the door shut Camila moved over to the bed and sat across from Lauren on it. Lauren raised her eyebrow at Camila but she didn’t see because she was busy staring at something in the room. 

“You need to know a bit about me. Those people out there that you saw, they aren’t my friends. They’re the daughters of my fathers friends. They’re snobby rich girls who only care about the money their fathers give them.” Camila still didn’t look over at Lauren, but Lauren kept her eyes on Camila. 

“Then why do you hang out with them?” 

“If I don’t get along with them and actually act like I hate them then that cause issues between our fathers. My father has to get along with them for political reasons.” There was a knock on the door. “Come in.” 

The door opened and two people walked in. One of them had a large silver platter with two plates of food on them. The other person had a small bottle of wine and two wine glasses. Again, Lauren looked over at Camila and raised her eyebrow, but Camila was still not looking at her. Before the two people, who Lauren assumed to be cooks, one of them looked over at Lauren and gave her a weird look. 

“Did you see the look she gave me?” Lauren could see Camila roll her eyes as she moved to grab the food. She handed one plate to Lauren and took the other. 

“Maybe she wouldn’t have gave it to you if you weren’t showing off that tattoo on your arm they wouldn’t be giving you weird looks.” 

“I’m sure she would have done more than just give me a weird look if she saw it.” 

“You’re not the first Viper that I’ve had here.” Camila poured them both glasses of wine and handed one of Lauren. “Let’s talk about what you need to know about me. So I was-“ 

Lauren quickly interrupted her, “slow down, you’ve had Vipers here before? For what reason?” 

“That’s personal. As I was saying, I was born in Miami in 2036. I’m seventeen. You already know I have a little sister who I don’t really know or talk about. Don’t mention her or my mother around him. Don’t mention the smoking either.” 

“So just don’t mention anything that you do?” 

Camila only nodded and began eating her food. Lauren picked through the pasta, making sure that there was nothing that could kill her in it before she began to eat. By the time Lauren was eating, she was a slow eater, Camila had already finished her food and half of the bottle of wine. She wasn’t necessarily drunk, but she was pretty close. 

“You know what you’re doing tomorrow night?” Lauren nodded, she barely got any information about Camila. Majority of the stuff she was told she couldn’t even mention. 

“I guess so.” Camila nodded and stood up from the bed to walk to the door. Lauren smirked as Camila turned the door knob and it didn’t open. “The door only opens from the outside. Unless you have that special card.” 

Camila’s hands went to her pockets. All of her pockets were empty. She walked around the room a few times, looking to see if she dropped the card but couldn’t find it. Camila turned to Lauren and saw the smirk on her face. 

“You took it. Where is it?” Camila walked over to Lauren and tried to pull her off the bed. Instead, when Camila grabbed her wrist to try to pull her, Lauren easily pulled her onto the bed. 

“It’s your card, I don’t know where it is. I guess if I’m stuck here then you get to be stuck here too.” Lauren knew where the card was, but she wasn’t going to tell Camila where it was. It wasn’t like she hid it where it couldn’t be found, since it was under the pillow. She couldn’t make it obvious that she took it off the bed where Camila had placed it. 

“If you can’t find it we are stuck here.” 

“No we aren’t. Don’t your friends have cards to get in here?” 

“Yeah, but they’re assholes. I’d rather not invite one of them over here when you, a Viper, is also in this room. Won’t turn out well.” 

“Well I’m going to sleep, so if you could move that would be great.” Camila got up, but not before sighing and rolling her eyes. 

Lauren laid down on her side so she was facing where Camila was sitting. Reaching her hand under the pillow, she felt the card and pulled it out from under it. “Cabello.” 

“What?” 

“Here.” 

Camila looked over at her and saw the card in her hand. Walking over, she grabbed the card and walked to the door. “You’re an asshole.” 

“I know.” 

* * *

Lauren woke up the next morning as light poured into the room. Looking over at the clock, she noticed that she was able to sleep in for once. She got dressed in one of her ‘nice’ outfits Camila told her to bring. It was a plain outfit though, only a white crop top with a leather jacket and her usual ripped jeans. 

They had about twelve more hours to drive until they got to New York. That was what Lauren thought until Camila brought her breakfast. Instead, Camila told her that they would be taking her personal helicopter that was currently on the roof of the tall building. 

Camila said that the helicopter would be much more convenient for two reasons. One being that it was faster. Second because the pilot wouldn’t ask any questions. Lauren agreed because that means she wouldn’t have to drive the car. She was not excited that she would be meeting Camila’s father even sooner. 

Lauren did get her phone back, not that it would be much use anyway because the pilot said they weren’t able to use it so it didn’t interfere with something on the helicopter that Lauren didn’t care enough to listen to. However, she didn’t get her gun back. Camila said it would be there if they ever go back because she was the only one with the code to the safe. 

Lauren had never been in a plane before, let alone a helicopter. The Royal Vipers did have some but they didn’t use them much because of safety reasons. Apparently the government had many radars from the previous government that still worked and still in use. 

During take off, which Lauren wasn’t prepared for, she went for something to grab onto and accidentally grabbed Camila’s hand who was sitting next to her. Realizing what she did right away, she pulled her hand away and apologized. Camila didn’t seem to bothered by it and Lauren felt herself blush as she let go of Camila’s hand. 

The flight was better than the taking off. The whole time, Lauren watched the ground below them, amazed at the view because she’s never seen the world like this before. During the landing Lauren was more prepared, and made sure she didn’t grab Camila again but instead grab onto the armrest. 

Once out of the helicopter, Lauren could tell that they were somewhere very private. The area was covered in trees that had leaves starting to change color since fall was slowly approaching. There were not other buildings in sight other than the one that they stood on and a similar, but smaller one, that was a short distance from them. 

“Welcome to Casa Cabello. The building we are standing on is where me and my father stay along with a few other people. The building over there is for anyone that works here, cooks, cleaning people, guards, and some others. Below the house is a garage with some cars, mostly my fathers.” Lauren could only nod, unsure of what to say as she followed Camila to the elevator. 

Camila pushed the button the took them to the first floor. There were 4 floors total, including the garage. 

“The first floor is basically just the kitchen, theater, library, and stuff like that. Second floor is where I stay and you will be staying also. The third floor is my fathers and the few other people that live here.” 

“Who else lives here?” 

“His second and the higher ranked guards.” Lauren nodded again, curious of who his second would be. Most assumed that Camila was second in line if something were to happen to him. 

Before she could ask anything else the elevator stopped and the doors opened. They exited into what Lauren assumed was a common room. There were a few chairs and a few small tables in the room. Next to the elevator looked like front doors and there were a few hallways which most likely led to the rooms Camila had mentioned earlier. 

“Camila! It’s good to see that you’re back.” Lauren looked over and saw Camila hugging an older looking man, but it wasn’t her father. “Who is this beautiful lady that you brought with you?” 

“This is Lauren. Lauren, this is Lewis, my father’s second.” 

Lauren went to shake his hand, which he took and shook back. “It’s nice to meet you.” 

“Pleasure to meet you too. Miss Cabello, your father is in his study, would you like me to let him know you are here?”

Camila looked over to Lauren and saw the nervous look on her face when her father was mentioned. “No thank you. I’m going to give Lauren a tour and then I’ll let him know I’m here.” 

“Let me know if you need anything.” Lewis bowed before walking down one of the hallways, leaving the two of them by themselves. 

“He didn’t act like you just got back from being kidnapped by your father’s worst enemy.” Lauren kept her voice down, unsure if anyone else was nearby. 

“I called last night after I left your room to let them know I was okay and coming back today. I spoke to Lewis though, not my father. I’m sure he passed the message to him though. Anyway, let’s get this tour started.” 

Camila led her down the first hallway, but stopped in the middle of it. There were multiple doors, all of them shut. Lauren heard noises coming from most of them but they weren’t loud enough for her to hear what was happening in them. 

“Three of these rooms are the kitchens. A breakfast, lunch, and dinner kitchen. These two other rooms are the dining room and the bar.” Camila began walking back the way they came from and walked down another hallway. 

She showed Lauren the library, theater, and the small gym. One of the hallways led to a meeting room and a few office type rooms which Camila said were off limits to her at the time because there were meetings being held there during the day. 

They walked back to the elevator and went to the second floor. Lauren was unsure what to expect here because it was Camila’s floor. Camila took her to her bedroom first. It was somewhat like Lauren expected, really big. There was a large bed along with a couch and chair. A large television was on the wall across from the bed and on another there was a closet and a desk with a mirror in front of it. On the desk there were a few make up bags and some books. What shocked Lauren the most about were the walls. They were painted yellow, and Lauren expected them to be some shade of blue or pink. 

Camila stood in the center of the room as Lauren walked around and took a look around it. Lauren walked by the bed, running her hand over the top of it. She stopped at the end table next to the bed and picked up the picture frame on it. Lauren assumed it was a few years old, since Camila looked younger in it. In the picture there were two other girls. 

“Who are they?” Camila walked over and grabbed the picture, taking a quick look at it before setting it back down. 

“My friends Sandra and Marielle. We should finish the tour, there’s not that much left to show you.” 

Camila quickly walked out of the room, not paying attention to if Lauren was following her. Lauren assumed that Camila didn’t like to talk about the two in the picture. She also assumed that she meant it when she said they were friends, unlike what she said about the people in South Carolina. 

“These are just extra bedrooms. I’ll let you decide on which one you want to stay in later. This time you’ll be able to open the door whenever you want. Down at the end is a game room. It just has some old arcade games in there. Back then I guess they had these places called arcades and people would go to them to play games. They still work if you want to check them out later.” 

Lauren nodded and turned to look at Camila. “Are you starting the girlfriend act early even though it’s just us?” 

“I’m practicing being nice to you, which is going to be a little hard for me.” 

“You’re doing a wonderful job at not making it obvious.” Camila laughed at Lauren’s sarcasm, and Lauren was sure it was the first time she ever heard her laugh. She also hoped it wouldn’t be the last time for some reason she couldn’t think of. 

“We should go downstairs. You have to meet my father still.” 

“No we don’t.” Lauren nodded her head towards the elevator where Camila’s father was walking out of it towards them. Camila looked over and slightly smiled when she saw him. 

“Mija, I’m so glad your safe.” Lauren watched the two hug, and awkwardly acting like she was looking around the hallway. “Lewis told me that you brought a friend back with you. This must be her.” 

“Yes, this is Lauren. She helped me get away from the Royal Vipers.” Camila turned to Lauren, who was still standing in the same spot. 

“Well Lauren, thank you for saving my daughter. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Lauren took a step forward and bowed her head, figuring she should show at least some respect to the King. 

“You don't have to thank me sir, it was the right thing to do. It’s an honor to meet you, Mr. Cabello.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to let everyone know, not everyone in this story is a famous person. For example, Lewis isn’t one it was just some random name that I chose to use for his character. 
> 
> Thank you for reading and I hope you are enjoying the story!
> 
> ~C


	7. Part 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize if the Spanish later on in this chapter isn’t perfect. I’m not the best at Spanish and I used a translator for what I didn’t know. If there are any mistakes let me know and I can fix them.

“It’s an honor to meet you you Mr. Cabello.” 

Camila was definitely nervous about Lauren and her father meeting. So far, it wasn’t going as bad as she thought. She was shocked that her father thanked Lauren for bringing her back, and she was even more shocked with Lauren’s response. What even shocked her more was that Lauren slightly bowed to him, and went to shake his hand first. Lauren was already doing a good job at putting a nice act on. 

The interaction between the two was short, only because Camila’s father had to go to a meeting. Currently, the two of them were in Camila’s room. Lauren was on the bed while Camila was sitting on the windowsill seat. Camila has been acting strange since they talked to her father, but Lauren wasn’t sure if she should ask about it. Right before her father went to the meeting he whispered something to Camila that she didn’t seem to happy about. 

Camila stared out the window for a whole hour. In that time Lauren drew on a paper, it wasn’t really anything, mostly just random scribbles. She wasn’t able to focus on drawing something. Instead, she was too focused on why Camila was acting the way she was. She wasn’t sure why she even cared that much. 

There was a knock on the door, followed by someone walking in that Lauren hasn’t seen before. “Dinner is ready downstairs if the two of you would like to join.” 

Camila nodded at him, then he quickly bowed and walked out the room, shutting the door behind him. After the door was shut she got up and went to the mirror, quickly fixing her hair. She turned to Lauren, catching her gaze and gave her a slight smile. 

“Are you ready?” 

Lauren sighed as she got up from the bed to put on her jacket. “If you are. Before we go can I ask you something?” 

“What is it?” 

“What did he say to you before he left? You’ve seen upset or something ever since.” 

“It’s nothing to worry about. We shouldn’t make them wait any longer, so let’s go.” 

Lauren walked beside Camila down to the dining room. The room had a few small tables and one large table. Camila led her to one of the smaller tables that her father and few other people were sitting at. Lauren moves to pull a chair out for Camila which she earned a thank you from before sitting down next to her. 

“Thank you for joining us. Lauren, I figured that since this out first time meeting I could get to know you.” 

Lauren looked over to Camila’s father. He smiled at her before taking a sip of his drink and then smiled at Camila, but she didn’t return it. 

“You already know my name is Lauren, so that’s a good start. I’m eighteen and I was born in Miami. I’ve also lived there all my life. My life isn’t really interesting, not until I met your daughter.” Lauren was relieved that the food came out so she didn’t have to talk anymore. 

The food served was probably the best she’s ever had before. It made sense that the food was amazing because it was being served to a king. Both Lauren and Camila mostly listened to the conversations, although a few times Camila did say a few things but Lauren didn’t talk at all. 

About an hour into dinner Lauren felt a hand on her thigh. She looked over to Camila, who met her eyes with a smile on her face. 

She leaned over to Lauren before saying, “just go with it. You’re doing great.” 

Lauren could only nod in response Camila’s father grabbed her attention again. 

“Lauren, would be okay if I speak to you in private for a moment?” Lauren glanced to Camila who nodded at her. 

“Yes, of course.” 

Lauren got up from her seat and followed Alejandro down the long hallway to the elevator. He pressed the button for the garage, making Lauren curious as to what else is down there since Camila said that there’s only a garage there. There was a short hallway they had to walk down before turning to the right. Lauren looked behind her and saw that there was in fact a garage, but they were walking away from it. 

The hallway ended at a metal door that had some sort of scanner on it. Alejandro places his thumb on it and a few seconds later the door opened. They walked down another hallway before he opened a door, allowing Lauren to enter first. Inside there was only a metal table and two metal chairs. It was similar to the one Camila was in when they first brought her to Miami except there was a television placed on one of the walls. 

“Please, take a seat.” Lauren sat down in one of the chairs and Alejandro sat across from her. He leaned his elbows onto the table while Lauren sat back in her chair, carefully watching him. 

“If this is about me helping Camila, I already told you that you don’t have to thank me.” Alejandro laughed and grabbed a remote that turned on the television. He then pressed the play button, showing a video of Lauren. It was when she escaped, and held a gun to Camila’s head right in front of him. 

It was only a month ago. Lauren remembers every detail vividly. She knows that both Camila and her father do also. The whole video plays, from the moment she grabbed Camila to when Ally shot the king and they left with Camila. 

“Karla knows my memory isn’t as good as it use to be, but it would be hard for me to forget your face. I should have you locked up with your friends, the one who took the roadblocks out with you and the one who came to find her.” Alejandro turned the television off and looked back to Lauren. “I’m willing to make a deal with you though. If you give me any information on who leads your little group or anything about high ranked people you work with, I’ll let you stay here but under other conditions. You have to follow my rules here, even when I’m not here.” 

“All I know is that a woman leads us. I don’t know anything else about her. Not many people do know anything or have even met her, no matter what they’re ranking is within the Vipers. I personally don’t know anyone in Miami that has met her.” Lauren told the truth. It was somewhat considered a privilege to know anything about who leads them. She did however know one person that has information about her. 

Many people believed Demi to be the true leader and that’s what people are told. Members who know she isn’t the actual leader felt it was safer that people didn’t know who the actual leader is. Demi was in fact her second, and because of that she knows a lot of information on the leader. 

“Why should I believe you?” 

“Because it’s the truth. Many people probably told you that the person who runs the Miami area runs everything else. That isn’t true.” 

“Your friend told me that she is.” Alejandro sounded confused about the whole thing. 

“We tell most people she is for the safety of the actual person who leads us. The woman in Miami is her second, but she was only recently given the title of her second so she has never met the person who leads us.” 

“How do you know all of this? Since like you said, you tell most people false information.” 

“I know a lot of things that people don’t know.” Lauren crosses her arms and leaned on the table. “I know stuff about the Royal Vipers that people don’t know. I also know stuff about your daughter you don’t know. Now it’s my turn to ask you something. Why didn’t you say anything when you first saw me in here?”

“I knew you weren’t the average Royal Viper for many reasons. One being you brought my daughter back here. Then, you come here and bow to me. No Viper I have ever met has done that, not even if they were hiding that they were one.” 

“I brought your daughter here because she asked me to. I shouldn’t have listened to her and let her leave to New Jersey...” Lauren trailed off, an idea popping into her head. “Are we done? I need to talk to Camila.” 

“After you give me the location you were at in Miami.” He handed Lauren a pencil and a small map of Miami. She grabbed the pencil and spotted the two locations that her people could easily be found. She circled one of the locations, the smaller one, and handed it back to Alejandro. “You can go now.” 

Lauren smiled as she got up from her seat and left the room. She gave him the smallest location in Miami. Demi was at the larger location, which she definitely wasn’t going to give him. The smaller location was where they mostly stored stuff. It was better, in her opinion, for them to lose supplies rather than people. 

She didn’t bother stopping at the dining room and went right to the second floor. She entered Camila’s room, spotting her phone sitting on the bed. There was a text from Demi, checking in on how everything was going. Lauren didn’t respond to her question, instead she sent her a short message and a link of her current location. 

_“Leave Miami. You’ll know why and all I can say is I’m sorry. He has Normani and Dinah. He knows.”_

Lauren turned off her phone after the message sent. She could only hope that Demi would leave. She only hoped that she could leave now. But she couldn’t. Something was telling her she had to stay, but she didn’t know why. She just has to. 

“Hey, are you okay?” Lauren didn’t realize she was staring blankly at the black screen of her phone until she heard Camila. 

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just thinking.” Camila walked over and sat down on the end of the bed, leaving space between the two of them. Lauren was tempted to turn her phone back on, wanting to see if Demi had questioned anything she sent. 

“What did you two talk about?” Lauren couldn’t tell her. Camila would make a big deal out of it. She would say something to her father. 

Lauren found herself staring at Camila trying to thing of an answer. There was a pit in her stomach. What just happened was showing how much of a situation Lauren got herself into. If she did one thing wrong she could get locked up, or worse. 

“It was nothing important. I’m tired so I think I’m going to lay down and probably go to sleep.” Lauren got up and began walking out of the room, but stopped when she heard Camila’s voice. 

“Lauren, do you wanna stay in here? The bed in here is comfier than the other ones.” 

“Are you saying that because you still feel bad for me sleeping on that chair and locking me in a room or are you saying that because you want me in the same bed as you?” 

Camila instantly look flustered by Lauren’s question. “No, I-I was just... I thought you would, uhm prefer to you know... stay in the comfier bed.” 

“Casa Cabello doesn’t have comfy beds? That’s hard to believe because the bed in South Carolina was comfy for being a place you get locked in.” She walked away before Camila could say anything else. 

And that was the last Camila saw her and spoke to her other than during meals. It’s been a week and neither have said a word to each other. Camila could tell Lauren was distancing herself from everyone. Camila still wasn’t her biggest fan of trust her, but she was curious as to what happened. 

It was easy for Lauren to block people out of her life. It was like she had her own on and off switch to do so. She’s blocked people out before. The one time was when she first joined the Vipers. She blocked everyone out for a month and spent that whole month in her room. She only left for food. That was exactly what she was doing now. She spent majority of her time in the small bedroom she stayed in. In the afternoon and evening she would eat in the dining hall with everyone. She would make sure she was the last one in so she could sit at a table by herself, but once she got there Camila would always move to the table she sat at. 

It took Camila three days to give up on trying to talk to Lauren. Every time Camila came to sit with her Lauren got a weird feeling. It happened every time she saw Camila. The feeling was one of the reasons she blocked people out. She didn’t like it because she never felt it before and didn’t know how to explain it. She wanted it to go away. 

Lauren was currently in the library, staring down at a drawing she did earlier. One of the small televisions was playing in the background on a national news station. They were rambling about the weather and how it was expected to get colder soon since it was September. Lauren was tuning it out until one of them said they had breaking news. 

Glancing up at the television, it showed a video of a building on fire. Lauren didn't think much about it until they said it was in Miami. Then they said it was one of the Royal Vipers storage facility. It was the building that Lauren gave the location of. One of the witnesses said they heard bombs going off before the building caught on fire and began crumbling right before her eyes. She also stated that multiple people ran out from the building. 

If the news station knew it was only a storage facility, so did Alejandro. He was away though, on a trip to meet with someone from another country. He was overseas so he couldn’t get to Lauren now. This was the first time in awhile that she actually felt scared for her life. 

“Lauren did you see the news they...” Camila came into the library and stopped when she saw Lauren staring at the television. “I know you won’t talk, but if you need to go back I’ll get you there. I’ll go with you.” 

The feeling came when she met Camila’s eyes. She could only nod her head no in response. She couldn’t go to Miami. She betrayed Demi’s trust and it was a big issue to betray her. She also caused the attack. Going back wasn’t an option. Staying wasn’t an option. 

When Camila didn’t say anything else she decided it was time to check her phone. She began walking to the elevator, not knowing that Camila was following her until she entered it and pressed the button to go to the second floor. Lauren didn’t like how close they were, even if they were both on opposite sides of the spacious elevator. Again, Camila followed her. Lauren didn’t say anything though, she wasn’t ready to. 

Lauren turned on her phone. Ten missed calls from Demi, all of them having voicemails too. A few missed calls from Ally, only one voicemail from her. There were even more texts from both of them. There was even a text from Lucy. 

Demi’s last text to her stood out the most: _“yo_ _u have lost my trust. I would have never expected this from you.”_

”Fuck.” Lauren cursed under her breath. She knew something like this would happen. Ally’s text were very different. They mostly said that she hoped Lauren knew what she was doing and that she made the right choice. 

“Is everything okay?” Lauren handed her phone to Camila, opened to the texts from Demi. Camila read them, furrowing her eyes brows after every text she read. “I don’t know what any of this means. What does this mean?” 

It meant that Lauren definitely couldn’t go back. At least back to Miami. There were always other locations, but knowing Demi news of what had happened would be spread quickly. Including the fact that it was Lauren then caused it. 

“You’re so annoying. Can you please talk to me?” Lauren ran her hand through her hair. 

“I can’t stay here. I can’t go to Miami.” 

“What?” Lauren ran her hand through her hair again, trying to think of a way to explain what happened to Camila. She couldn’t know anything though. She didn’t want Camila to say anything to her father. “If you won’t talk to me I think I know people you will talk to. Come with me.” 

Lauren wasn’t given much of an option because Camila grabbed her by the hand and dragged her to the elevator. Camila hit the button for the garage and let go of Lauren’s hand once the doors shut. She felt Camila grab her hand again and take her down the same hallway Alejandro did only a week ago. This time there was a guard standing outside the door that moved in front of the door before Camila could reach it. 

“You know the King doesn’t like you down here.” Lauren glanced between the two of them. Camila didn’t seem to care about what he said because she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and moved him, or at least attempted to. 

Lauren couldn’t help but laugh when Camila grabbed him and tried to move him but he didn’t move at all. She quickly turned to Lauren and glared at her. 

“¡Cállate!” Lauren gave her a questioning look when Camila spoke Spanish, telling her to shut up. 

“So you want me to talk to you but you tell me to shut up when I laugh, my bad.” 

Camila rolled her eyes. “Él no sabe español.” 

“Oh.” Lauren looked at the guard, seeing that he did look confused. She was unsure as to how Camila knew that he doesn’t know Spanish. “What do you want?” 

Camila rolled her eyes once again, wanting Lauren to also speak Spanish. “¿Puedes sacarlo de neustro camino?”  _Can you get him out of our way?_

Lauren looked at the guard. It wouldn’t be hard for her to get him out of the way. “Sí puedo, pero no puedes ser serio.” _Yes I can, but you can’t be serious._

”No, Lauren, no lo estoy. Quiero que le pidas educadamente que se aleje de nuestro camino para que podamos visitar a uno de los prisioneros aquí.” _No Lauren, I’m not. I want you to politely ask him to move out of our way so we can visit one of the prisoners here._

Lauren sighed before mumbling under her breath, understanding what Camila wanted her to do. “I didn’t come here to do all this work.” 

“I don’t know a word either of you have said but could you just leave before I have to say-“

Lauren didn’t give him time to finish what he was saying as she kneed him in the stomach. As he haunched over Lauren wrapped her arm around his neck and held him against her body. 

“I didn’t mean for you to kill him!” Lauren saw the panicked look in Camila’s eyes as the guard struggled against Lauren. She didn’t move though, keeping her arm around him. 

“I’m not stupid. I’m just going to knock him out for awhile if you give me a minute.” The guard quickly started struggling more and Lauren wasn’t going to be able to hold onto him much longer. 

She reached for the gun at his waist before letting him go. He moved so there was a distance between them and looked up to meet Lauren aiming the gun at him. Lauren knew Camila would complain if she shot him so instead she kicked him in the knee and then used the butt of the gun to hit him on the temple, causing him to fall to the ground. 

“I thought you were going to shoot him. You can’t go around acting like you’re going to shoot somebody!” Camila knew she was overreacting but still didn’t appreciate how Lauren handled the situation. 

“I should have, he was being a dick like most men usually are.” Camila grabbed the gun from Lauren before she could put it in the waist of her pants. “Why can’t I keep it?” 

“Because I don’t trust you with a gun.” 

“What if I don’t trust you with a gun?” 

“What happened to you ignoring everyone?” Lauren stayed quiet this time. Camila smiled at her before turning to the door but that smile fell when she looked at the lock on the door. She remembered it being a normal lock, not a weird touchscreen one. 

Just to annoy Camila, Lauren decided she wasn’t going to talk. This time it wasn’t like she did before, it was just to annoy her. Lauren grabbed Camila’s hand and placed her thumb against the touchscreen, frowning when it blinked red and the door didn’t open. She then grabbed the guards arm to drag him the short distance to the door and placed his thumb on the touchscreen. This time the door opened. 

“Can you carry him?” Lauren shook her head no but grabbed his other arm and pulled him inside. Camila followed behind and went into a room that had multiple computers in it. “I need to delete the security footage of us down here. You can just leave him in here.” 

It didn’t take Camila long to finish deleting the footage. She walked out of the room and down the hall with Lauren following behind her. They went through another set of doors before entering another hallway that Lauren assumed were holding cells based off of what Camila said earlier. 

They stopped at the second door on the left and Camila began entered codes on the lock. It took her only two tries to get the door opened. They walked down another hallway before stopping outside a glass door. 

Lauren looked inside, not recognizing the person inside until she lifted up her head. She immediately got up and walked towards the door and began talking but Lauren couldn’t hear her. She could tell that she wasn’t happy by the look on her face. 

“This whole thing is soundproof. We can only hear each other if someone on our side pushes that red button.” Lauren was about to push the button, but was stopped when Camila stopped her by grabbing her hand. Lauren was given a strange look by the person inside by the small interaction between her and Camila. “I looked at one of my father’s files, it said she got here not long after you took me. People are only sent here if they pose a big threat or have some information that is really necessary and secret. He kept it a secret from everyone that I was taken except for Lewis. One of the guards that knows me was down here a few days ago and let me in so I came here to see who she was. I noticed you guys have the same tattoo of the viper so I figured you know each other.” 

This time Camila let Lauren press the red button, but was unable to speak because she was immediately being yelled at. “What the fuck are you doing here Jauregui, it should be you inside here, not me. I should be in Miami right now but no, Jauregui is a little bitch and abandoned me in Pittsburgh.” 

Lauren moved her finger from the button and turned to Camila. “Can you open the door? I’d like to speak to her privately.” 

“I can leave and then come back.” 

“Stay here.” Camila nodded and entered a code so the door would open. 

Before either of them could react, the door was pushed open. Lauren was just able to turn to see a fist coming towards her face and feeling it hit her jaw strongly before and then everything go black as she hit the ground. 

* * *

Her head was pounding. Opening her eyes made it even worse. Her jaw hurt the most. She wasn’t laying on the cold ground that she fell on, but instead what she assumed to be a bed. The mattress shifted as she felt someone move next to her on the bed. She was still not ready to open her eyes and knew she definitely had a concussion. 

Lauren moved her hand to her jaw, flinching as soon as she touched it. She finally opened her eyes and sat up but immediately felt dizzy. 

“Lay back down, you hit your head pretty hard twice.” Camila was sitting on the bed to her left holding a bag of ice that was pretty much melted. Lauren lightly touched her jaw again and felt that it was cold. 

“No, Dinah hit me pretty hard and then made me hit my head.” She felt Camila’s hand on her shoulder as she was slowly pushed back down on the bed. 

“And you passed out for two hours. The doctor said that if you wake up and remember what happened that you will only need to rest for three weeks.” 

“Three weeks?” Lauren’s eyes got wide, which she quickly regretted doing because it made her head hurt even more from the light. “Can you shut the curtains? The light hurts my head.” 

Camila got up and closed the curtains along with dimming the light on her lamp that was next to the bed. When she walked back to the bed she went to Lauren’s side this time and crouched down next to her. Lauren turned to look at her but Camila pushed her head back, causing Lauren to mumble something Camila couldn’t hear. 

Lauren had a bruise on her jaw that was a little bit bigger than Camila’s fist. It was red, but by tomorrow it would probably be a dark purple color. Lauren also had a bump on her head that Camila easily found and felt with her hand. 

“Fuck that hurts.” 

“Sorry,” Camila mumbled as she moved her hand away from Lauren. 

Lauren was about to say something but stopped when she saw a red light by Camila’s bedroom door blinking. Before she could question it, a loud noise followed. She moved her hands to cover her ears because the noise began to hurt her head. 

Of course this would happen now, Camila thought. She hurried around her room, grabbing a bag and a few things in drawers and in her closet before going back to Lauren. 

“We have to go. Can you walk on your own?” Lauren got up as fast as she could, which was really slow. Camila had a panicked look in her eyes, but it was different from earlier. It was more like she was scared of something. 

It took Lauren a minute to shake off the dizziness when she stood up. Walking felt fine, she just couldn’t move to fast. Camila had other plans though. She grabbed Lauren by the wrist and rushed them out of the bedroom. Outside the room was a younger guy that looked around Lauren and Camila’s age. 

“Fuck off Mahone, I asked you never to come to this floor again.” Camila began to walk past him and he followed behind the two of them. 

“You know when that alarm goes off I’m suppose to get you out of here.” 

“I know my way out of here.” Camila walked through a door and it led to a staircase. Lauren stopped and gave Camila a look, she wasn’t sure if she could handle stairs. “Don’t give me that look. Mahone what’s going on?” 

“Vipers were spotted in the tree line and as soon as one of our guys shot they began shooting.” 

“You should go help them, Lauren can handle herself and I’m sure she can handle me also.” Lauren was about to start complaining about her head but Camila placed her hand over Lauren’s mouth. 

“I’m staying with you.” 

Lauren rolled her eyes and moved Camila’s hand from her mouth. “She told you to fuck off, so go fuck off. Maybe you’ll get lucky and one of the Vipers will hit you somewhere so you don’t have to work for awhile.” 

The guy gave Lauren a stern look that she quickly returned. He began mumbling about how Camila would be much better off with him. Once the door shut behind him, Lauren turned back to Camila. 

“I’m not walking on these stairs. I can barely walk without getting dizzy as it is.” 

“Well maybe if you didn’t tell him to fuck off he could have carried you down the stairs.” 

Lauren scoffed, “bold of you to assume I’d let a boy do something for me.” 

“You want to tell me how the Vipers know this place exists?” 

“No.” 

“Should I go ask one of them?” 

“No. You don’t need to get shot again.” 

“You’re ridiculous. You told them about this place didn’t you?” Camila began walking down the stairs, Lauren slowly following behind her. 

“I may have gave Demi my location.” They only made it up two sets of stairs before gunshots were heard inside. “I have to talk to them. We can get out of here without being hurt.” 

Camila turned back to Lauren and looked at her like she was crazy. She brought her hand to the bridge of her nose before looking back at Lauren. “No, you’re coming with me to the secret bunker we have that I’m suppose to go to whenever there is an attack here.” 

“Camila-“ 

“No Lauren. You can’t go back to them and when my father comes back he will probably lock you up here. He doesn’t know where the bunker is, only I do. There’s stuff there so we can survive there for months without leaving.” 

Lauren decided to follow Camila, she definitely wasn’t going to take no for an answer. She was right though, about both the Vipers and her father. She just didn’t want to spend months alone with Camila. 

They went through another door, this one led outside to the roof. The helicopter was already running, the pilot at his seat. Camila grabbed onto Lauren’s hand and pulled her towards the helicopter which they quickly got on. 

Once it took off, Lauren looked down at the ground. There were a lot of people there, both Vipers and guards. Lauren could tell they weren’t from Miami though. She could easily see that they didn’t have weapons like they did in Miami. She had no idea where these people could be from. 

Lauren could only hope they wouldn’t be in the bunker for long and that she would have a place to go after. 

* * *

Normani waited until nobody was coming out of the mansion anymore before she took off into a sprint in its direction. Once inside she immediately went to the elevator and pressed the button for the garage. The doors opened and slowly walked out to check her surroundings. Down one hallway was a door labeled garage and the other had a door that wasn’t labeled. There was a guard standing outside that door who quickly noticed her. Normani was faster and placed two bullets in his chest before he had the chance to grab his gun. 

The door had a fingerprint scanner, one Normani knew how to hack. Her way of hacking was breaking it with her foot. She kicked it and heard the click of the lock on the door. She quickly made her way to the next door and did the same thing to its lock. 

She spotted her inside one of the cells. She was sitting on the bed holding a bag of ice to her knuckles. She didn’t notice Normani until she pressed the button and spoke. 

“How come Lauren is here but hasn’t got you out yet?” Dinah stood up and walked towards the door, a smile on her face as she saw Normani. 

“She’s never liked me. I didn’t make it better because I sort of punched her in the face in front of the Princess.” Dinah moved the bag of ice from her hand to show Normani her red knuckles. 

“She’s still with her?” 

“Yeah and they seem to get along pretty well. Too well if you ask me.” Normani raised her eyebrow, confused on what Dinah was trying to say. “I’m saying that I wouldn’t be shocked if they fucked already.” 

“Jesus Dinah. Where are they at?” 

“Since you set off the alarm here I would say that they have already left. I’m serious about them fucking though, they give these weird looks to each other.” 

Normani shook her head as she broke the lock on the door, allowing Dinah out. They quickly hugged each other before going back up to the first floor. A shorter woman greeted them as they exited the elevator. 

“Everything okay?” The woman was pacing in front of them, stopping once she heard Normani speak. 

“Oh, you must be Dinah. I’m Ashley but everyone just calls me Halsey.” Dinah greeted her with a handshake and a smile. “I’m with the group from New Jersey.” 

“We can do proper introductions later. What’s happening?” Halsey turned her attention to Normani again. 

“We believe that we killed all of the guards here that decided to show up. More probably will since the alarm was going off. Lauren and the Cabello aren’t here anymore, I saw them leave on helicopter.” 

“Fuck, okay. Do you know where they were going?” 

Halsey shook her head no. “All of the places the Cabello’s own and stay at are private so I have no idea. We have to talk to Demi and try to speak with her.” 

“Demi won’t know anything.” Dinah spoke up from beside Normani. She knew that if Demi knew anything they wouldn’t be standing here still. 

“Not Demi, the true leader of the Vipers.” Dinah was confused while Normani looked at Halsey like she was trying to tell a funny joke that nobody found funny. 

“You’re not serious are you?” Normani did let herself laugh, but stopped when she saw Halsey wasn’t even smiling. 

“I’m serious. We have to speak with Cobra, she knows more about the Cabello’s than anyone else.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trying to make this story keep at the slow burn pace I want it as is so hard when all I wanna do is write my favorite parts that I thought of so you guys can read them. 
> 
> Also the next few chapters will probably come slowly since I’m trying to make them longer and I will also be somewhat busy due to school and exams coming up. I will still try my best to get those updates out as soon as possible.


	8. Part 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took a bit longer than I expected so I apologize for the wait. Hopefully I won’t take as long to make the next updates.

Normani and Dinah made it back to Miami without any issues. News traveled faster than them so by the time they were in Miami the whole country knew about the attack. Halsey decided to join them in Miami to speak with Demi. She was the first one to greet them as they walked inside. 

Demi’s eyes scanned over the three of them and then to the car. “Where’s Lauren?” 

“She got away with the Princess.” Halsey was the first to speak up, followed by Normani and Dinah nodding their heads in agreement. 

“You had one job. Why has nobody been able to get there jobs done around here?” Halsey kept her eyes on Demi while Normani and Dinah glanced at each other. “Do you at least know where she went?” 

“No, if we knew where she went we would go find her. All of the places the Cabello’s live in or use for protection are kept secret. However, we do have one person that may know where they may have gone.” Demi looked at Normani, she already knew who she was talking about. 

“No, absolutely not. You are not going to her with this.” 

“You didn’t tell her about sending Lauren there did you?” 

Demi shook her head no. “I know I’m suppose to tell her if we have to do something that directly involves the King and Princess, but she wouldn’t have let us go through with it if she knew.” 

“Did she even know we had the Princess?” 

“No.” 

“We need to tell her. Why haven’t you told her?” Demi stood in front of the three in silence. She was honestly unsure as to why she never said anything. They knew everything up until Lauren escaping and bringing the Princess with her. 

“If I’m telling her, you’re going with me. The two of you can stay here and find what you can about where they might be and also when the King is coming back.” 

Demi walked in front of Normani to a room where they had stored information on the Cabello’s. On one wall had a timeline of important events that have happened that they know about, and it wasn’t much. 

“Before we go I need to tell you something that only a small number of people know. I don’t even know if the Cabello’s know. Can you keep this conversation between the two of us?” Demi looked to Normani. She silently nodded in response. “Ten years ago Camila’s mom distanced herself from her father, causing her to also distance herself from her daughter. Seven years ago she left the two of them, she didn’t have the money or power to take Camila along with her. She has another daughter, seven years old. I believe that Camila barely knows her because of the timing of her leaving.” 

“I don’t need a history lesson on them if all we are doing is saying they got away.” 

“Does the name Estrabao sound familiar to you in anyway?” 

Normani thought for a second, she felt like she heard it before yet didn’t know when or how. “No.” 

“Okay, let’s go.” 

“Wait, Demi. In what way does this conversation need to stay between the two of us?” 

“The name needs to stay between us.” 

* * *

Lauren looked out the side of the helicopter, instantly regretting it as soon as she noticed how high up they were. They were over a city, one that looked much better than the ones she had seen in her lifetime. 

Her and Camila has been in the helicopter forever. It should be nightime by now but it was still bright out, so Lauren figured they were somewhere out west. Judging by the looks of it, they were over a city that many wealthy people lived. 

“We’re almost there. We won’t be in the city, about an hours drive outside of it.” Lauren looked over at Camila once she heard her voice. She wasn’t looking at Lauren, but outside the window instead. 

Lauren didn’t respond. She didn’t feel the need to speak. The helicopter slowly began making its way closer to the ground, which somewhat comforted her since she felt sick ever since she looked out the window. 

“Please don’t throw up, it might ruin the seats.” Camila noticed Lauren was a bit paler than usual, she then noticed Lauren wasn’t speaking again by the look she received. Lauren then mumbled something that Camila couldn’t hear, so she chose to ignore it. 

Minutes later the helicopter was landing at an airport to both of their surprise. Lauren thought they would be landing at another large house. Camila thought they would be landing outside of the city at least. She’s never been to one of her family’s hiding places when threatened so she didn’t know what to expect. 

The pilot answered Camila’s curiousity before she even asked. “There was a change of plans while you two were asleep. The driver will be taking you both to an apartment not far from here.” 

“Isn’t it safer for us to be at the bunker though?” 

“The apartment is closer to the airport so it will be faster to get out of here if something were to happen.” Camila only somewhat believed his response. She knew their was either a car or helicopter to get them away from the bunker if necessary and someone always had either one ready to leave. 

Lauren knew that was wrong, only because she saw how fast they left back at Camila’s home. She also knew something was up because the pilot had a small tattoo of a viper on his hand, but she knew not to say anything. He must have got to the helicopter during the attack and did something with the actual pilot. 

As they got out he gave her a quick look which she understood instantly, it was part of a plan she had no idea about. “The driver is one of the Cabello’s workers.” He quietly whispered just so Lauren would hear as a black car pulled up. 

Lauren tailed behind Camila to the car and entered it after her. The ride was quiet and fast, only taking about five minutes to pull into an apartment complex. They were nice, like the ones Lauren would see in downtown Miami. The building was white and had multiple large windows on it. 

Outside of the car, the driver tossed Camila a set of keys. Lauren thought he would at least walk them up to the apartment but instead he got back into the car and drove off. 

Camila began ranting to Lauren’s amusement as they walked into the apartment building. “This is bullshit. I’m minding my own business then your friends decide to come and attack me in my home. Then, I figure I’ll be safe because I’ll go to a bunker that nobody knows about. But no I get stuck in some apartment because it’s more convenient and close to an airport. I don’t even have my phone with me. Do you have yours?” 

Lauren shook her head no in response. She received a dirty look from Camila, most likely because of the slight smirk on her face from listening to Camila’s rant. Camila kept her eyes on Lauren as she unlocked the door to allow them both inside. She let Lauren inside first. 

The first Lauren noticed was that it was small. She figured it would be a bit bigger from the outside. The kitchen only had one counter and a small stove and sink. The fridge was average size. The living room was a tad bigger, there was space to walk along with space for a couch, coffee table, and television. It was then that Lauren realized that the television was on. A picture of a viper was shown, but it wasn’t like one she’s seen before. She walked over to the television to try and turn it off before Camila saw, but was unsuccessful. 

“What’s that?” Lauren didn’t respond, still trying to turn it off. “Now isn’t a time for you to ignore me, I don’t care what you’re upset about.” 

“It’s one of the symbols for a group of Vipers. I don’t know which one I’ve never seen it before.” She stepped aside so Camila could see it. 

The image had a dark green viper with a red marking in the background that neither could see what it was. The viper also had gold markings on it along with what seemed to be gold chains around it. 

Camila walked up to the screen, only stopping when she could reach out and touch it. Lauren watched her trace the red marking, both of their eyebrows furrowed. She suddenly stopped in the middle of tracing one of the lines, her eyes slowly went to her arm. Lauren couldn’t tell what she was doing looking at her arm, only because she was wearing a hoodie. 

“I think I’ve seen this before. The red markings, not the whole thing.” Camila took a step back and rolled up the sleeve on her left arm. A red marking was on her forearm, it stood out from the black markings that made up some of her other tattoos. 

The red markings visible on the image matched with Camila’s tattoo. Lauren had absolutely no idea why either the Vipers would copy a tattoo of Camila’s or why Camila would copy a symbol of theirs. 

Lauren softly grabbed Camila’s wrist to get a closer look at it. The center that was hidden made up a bird, which Lauren assumes to be a dove. The outside was a pattern that made a circle around it. 

“Have you seen that symbol before, the one on the television?” Camila met Lauren’s emerald eyes and shook her head no. She was oddly unable to speak when she realized how close they were. “Then where did you come up with that tattoo?” 

Camila took a step back, pulling her wrist from Lauren’s hand before responding. “This was the first tattoo I got. I got it when I was fifteen. My mother drew the pattern along with the dove. I got it exactly five years after she left.” 

“Do you know where she went?” Unknowingly, Lauren was getting into dangerous territory with Camila. 

“No. She left with my sister when I was ten.” 

Lauren didn’t say anything else, which Camila was glad about. She did her best to avoid talking about her mother. She was the only person that had ever been for her in her entire life. When she left, it left a unseen permanent scar on Camila. Her father avoided talking about it because her mother defied his beliefs, which he doesn’t appreciate people doing. 

“I’m going to lay down, I’m tired from all of the excitement from today.” Camila walked to the bedroom and fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. 

While Lauren was tired, she figured that she could find out where the symbol came from. She stared at the TV, trying to find any small detail that might hint as to what it was. Her eye did catch a laptop that was on the TV stand. 

She grabbed it and sat down on the couch before opening it. It needed a password though, and there was no option to sign in as a guest like on most computers. Lauren began entering random passwords, none of them being successful. After thirty minutes of trying, she gave up. 

She let out a frustrated groan and stood up from the couch. She was glad that the small apartment had a small balcony that she was able to walk out onto. The weather outside was nice, not too hot with a small breeze. The area was loud with a lot of cars on the street and many businesses close by. Lauren thought, that if Camila’s father hadn’t become King, this was a city that she would someday see herself happy in. 

* * *

Normani thought they were taking a small trip in the car, but instead they were at a small airport exiting a plane they had to fly on. Demi has been very quiet the whole trip, not even telling Normani where they were going no matter how many times she asked. 

It was another hour until they reached a large city. Normani then figured out it was Los Angeles. She didn’t understand why they would be here since the Vipers have little to no influence here. If the leader of the Vipers was in LA, then she must have some type of influence on the people that have connections with or follow his beliefs. 

As they exited the car they rented Demi led her to a small home along a crowded street. For a small neighborhood there were a lot of people walking on the sidewalks or in their cars. 

Demi knocked on the door of the home, and only a few seconds later a woman who was a bit older than them opened the door. “Can I help you?” 

Demi didn’t answer, only rolling up her sleeve to show the woman her viper tattoo. The woman glanced to Normani as she did the same. 

“We need to talk. I’m Demi, this is Normani.” The woman’s eyes got wide as she heard their names. 

“Oh! Demi, it’s so nice to meet you. I wish I would have known you would be coming.” She moved aside allowing them both to enter her home. Normani glanced around the home, it was cute and welcoming which she didn’t expect from someone who led a group like the Royal Vipers. She also noticed children’s toys laying around the living room, along with a younger girl sitting on the floor playing with them. “Sofia, ¿podrías jugar un rato en tu cuarto? Necesito hablar solo con estas mujeres.” _Sofia, could you please play in your room for a bit? I need to speak with these women alone._

The younger girl looked up to who both Normani and Demi assumed to be her mother, then to the two of them. She nodded and grabbed a few of her toys before walking out of the living room. The older woman moved aside a few of the toys on the floor and couch, giving room for them to walk and sit. 

“I’m so sorry that this is such a sudden and unexpected visit, but it’s necessary. I should have at least spoken to you in some form before, some things in this situation are my fault for not speaking to you.” Demi sighed before continuing, “it’s about the Cabello’s, most importantly Camila.” 

Neither of them could read the expression on her face. Normani just saw a blank expression as she stared back at Demi, only occasionally glancing to Demi’s left. Demi saw the same blank expression, even though she was usually good at reading people. 

“What about them?” 

“I’m sure you know about Lauren getting caught by his guards and getting held by them.” The woman nodded before Demi continued. “I left out the part about Lauren running into Camila along with Alejandro while she escaped. Someone from Texas was there to and shot him in the leg. They took Camila with them and brought her back to Miami.” 

“She's still in Miami?” 

“No. That’s why we came here. We don’t exactly know where her and Lauren are.” The woman clenched her jaw, Demi expected this while Normani was confused as to why she seemed to get somewhat angry. “Lauren was also the one who caused the one supply building by the Miami base to get destroyed. Alejandro was asking for the location that we work out of but she gave him the supply building instead.” 

“Why was she with Alejandro at that time if she escaped?” The woman’s expression changed to a confused one, which let Normani relax a little. 

“Her and Camila went back to where they live. I’m guessing Alejandro figured out the she was with the Vipers and was asking for information. She sent me a message about it and also sent me her location. We sent out a group to watch the home but they got spotted and were forced to open fire on them. Camila and Lauren got out on a helicopter, but we don’t know where they went.” 

“So, Lauren, who I’m going to say causes issues often maybe, runs off with Camila, causes us to lose a lot of money, and then go to most likely a secret location all by themselves.” The woman let out a heavy breath and put her face in her hands. “You’re putting Camila’s life in danger.” 

“I’m sorry but, if we are against everything that family stands for then why do you care if she’s put into a dangerous situation?” Normani spoke up for the first time. Demi shot a glare at her while she got another blank expression from the woman. 

“You didn’t tell her?” Demi shook her head no to her question. “Once I saw you both walk in here and then hear her talk about Camila I figured you would know. I have a somewhat close relationship with the Cabello’s, at least I use to. I use to be married to Alejandro, and Camila is my daughter.” 

Normani’s mouth opened wide, definitely not expecting what she just heard. Normani looked over at Demi, expecting some type of reaction from her even though she knew. Both her and Camila’s mother stood there staring at her waiting for her to say something. 

“Anyway, I can’t be angry at you for not knowing where they went. I know where they are and hopefully one of them is smart enough to figure out that someone that works with the Vipers knows where they are.” 

“How do you know where they are?” Demi looked at Normani, shrugging her shoulders cause she had no idea about this new information. 

“One of our people who knows how to fly a helicopter took there’s and flew them out to LA. They were originally suppose to come here anyway because that’s where a secret location for them to use when any threatening situation happens to them.” 

“What do you mean by one of them being smart enough?” 

“I put my Viper symbol on the television for them to see. The background of that symbol matches to one of Camila’s tattoos she has on her left arm. The only part visible is a pattern in the shape of a ring, a dove is at the center of it but it’s not visible because a viper covers it.” She pulled out two pieces of paper from an end stand. One of those had the image of the dove and the other of the viper. “I’m the only one who uses this symbol so nobody really knows it. I left a computer there that Camila will know the password to, it’s my name. Once she opens it there will be a message from me telling her to come here.” 

“And if we get there before she figures out how to get one that computer? I plan on giving Lauren some type consequence for endangering us along with destroying half of our supplies in Miami.” Demi stood up, Normani knew what she was doing. Demi was always the one seen to be giving out orders to people, so of course she would test the one person who could give her orders. 

“I’m going to trust you won’t do that, knowing that I have authority over you.” 

“Be careful who you put your trust in.” 

Demi and Normani left without another word. Normani was somewhat shocked by the last thing both of them said, although at the same time she could expect that from her. She knew Demi wanted to get to Lauren and Camila first and Demi usually achieved what she wanted. 

“Call Dinah, tell her to get any video surveillance she can for apartments near this house along with the airport.” Normani did as she said, having a short conversation with Dinah and gave her the address of the home along with telling her to search the videos for Camila and Lauren. She told Normani that she would send her any information as soon as she got it. 

“She said she’ll look and see what she can find. What’s the big deal about finding them before Camila’s mom?” 

“Ms. Estrabao, Sinu, will keep Lauren with her if she goes with Camila. I’ll be honest, I don’t fully trust her because of her relation to them. I don’t believe she can fully cut him off when she has two daughters with him. We need to get to them before she does.” 

Before either of them could continue the conversation, Normani’s phone rang. It was Dinah, which shocked them both that she was able to call back with information that quick. 

Normani put the phone on speaker. “Okay so I looked up apartments close to the airport, and I think I found them. I can’t see their faces because one has a hoodie with the hood up and the other has a beanie on. They kept their faces low also. It looks like them though. I’ve always wanted to come to LA it seems nice. Oh! Demi do you think I could fly out to be with you guys? I’ll bring Ally with me.” 

“Can you send the address of the hotel?” Demi didn’t answer Dinah’s question, and Normani knew she wasn’t planning on it. 

“Yeah I’ll send it, or you can just wait for us to get there and we can all go together. Please, we can be there by tonight or tomorrow morning.” 

“Dinah we are on a schedule. We need to get to them before someone else who already knows where they are gets to them.” Demi pulled into a parking lot of a nice hotel and exited the car. She took the phone from Normani and turned off speaker as they entered the hotel. “Send me the address, and if I’m feeling nice tomorrow morning I’ll have someone fly you both out here. I know you only want to be here because Normani is here.” 

“Okay I’ll send it. It’s only about five minutes from the airport and won’t be hard to find. Only problem is that they went into the elevator and I couldn’t get into any other camera to find out what floor they went to.” Demi thanked her and hung up the phone before she got their room keys from the front desk. She tossed Normani one of the keys before heading up to her separate room. 

* * *

Camila couldn’t sleep any longer than thirty minutes. While she was very tired, she was woken up by noise in the living room. She heard what sounded like something slam shut then a sliding door opening. It caused her to get out of bed, wanting to figure out why there was so much noise happening with nothing really to do in the small apartment. She walked out of the bedroom to see a laptop sitting on the coffee table and Lauren leaning on the balcony railing. 

Camila went to the laptop first. She opened it and saw it was password locked, along with have a large number of failed attempts. Lauren must have been trying to get onto the computer, she thought. Camila tried entering a few basic words and numbers in. None of them worked. Her eyes traveled to the tattoo on her arm again, then she began entering things that had to do with her family. 

She entered birthdays, names, and jokes she could remember from when they were somewhat a normal family. Camila glanced and Lauren, who still had her attention on something outside. She was about to give up, but then thought of a name she didn’t use. She slowly typed in her mom’s name. The computer opened to a blank white screen, that words began appearing on. 

Camila didn’t start reading it before she walked out to the balcony and handed the computer to Lauren. They both read what was on the screen. It was some instructions telling them to go to a home about fifteen minutes from the apartment. At the end it said to come alone, meaning Camila would have to leave Lauren behind. It was also signed by Camila’s mom. 

“You can’t go.” Lauren closed the laptop and turned to Camila. Her face was a mix between shock and confusion. 

“Lauren I have to... it’s my mom. I haven’t seen her in seven years. What do you mean I can’t go?” 

“I don’t trust it. This might not even be her. Anyone can type something up on a computer to make it seem like it was someone else.” Camila was feeling this pit in her stomach, along with tears forming in her eyes. She hasn’t seen her mother in so long and now at the chance of getting to see her someone was denying her of it. 

“She’s the only person that have ever cared for me, I can’t just not go see her. I’ve been without someone caring for me for seven years. My father never cared, he only does what’s best for him. She always did what was best for others. I’m going to see her, I don’t care what you say.” Camila turned to walk away but Lauren grabbed her arm to pull her back. 

“You’re not going. I’ll lock you in one of those rooms to keep you here so I can do my job.” 

“And what is your job?” Lauren stayed silent. While she did have a job, she wasn’t sure how to explain it to Camila. “That’s what I thought. You don’t get it Lauren. Someone left me, and I haven’t seen them since. I was left alone.” 

“You don’t understand. I have been left behind by family. My parents along with my two younger siblings left me when I was twelve. Where you were left and have anything you could ever want, I was left with nothing.” Camila stayed silent. She didn’t expect this outburst from Lauren. She had no idea this had happened to Lauren either. 

Before she could say anything Lauren walked back into the apartment, closing the sliding door behind her and turning back to Camila. She was glaring at Camila as she was messing with the handle to the door. Camila realized what she was doing once Lauren took a step back. She tried opening the door, but it was locked from the inside. 

“I wasn’t joking when I said I’d lock you somewhere in here.” Lauren crosses her arms and let a smirk appear on her face as she watched Camila try to open the door. 

“Fuck you. Open this door.” Camila began banging her hand on the glass sliding door. 

“Nope. If you need anything to eat or drink just let me know. Let’s think of this as a way of me getting back at you for locking me in that room at your penthouse.” 

“At least I’m not handcuffed to some uncomfortable chair stuck in a room with you.” Camila sighed and sat down in the middle of the balcony, unsure of what to do with herself. She could only sit there and watch Lauren watch television, hoping that eventually someone would show up to get her out of here. 

Lauren turned on the news, figuring she could see if they reported anything involving the Vipers in the area. There wasn’t anything reported in the hour that she watched, that was until a breaking news alert came on. The symbol that was originally on the TV came up while the lady was talking about how they believe to members of the Vipers were spotted in LA. One image was a person that looked to be around her age while the other was an older woman. 

The picture of the older woman was clearer than the other, so Lauren was able to see some of her facial features. After looking at the image, she glanced at Camila who was still staring at her from the patio then back to the image. She glanced back and forth a few more times before the reporter came back on screen saying that if anyone had information to report it to officials. 

Lauren took one last look at Camila before remembering something she said when they first got to the apartment. “Oh shit.” 

**Author's Note:**

> This was a random idea came up out of nowhere so I honestly don't know how this story will turn out so don't get your hopes up for a good one. I'm going to try to make it good but I don't think my writing skills are that great but who knows maybe this will turn out to be a good one.
> 
> This story may start out confusing but I'm going to explain what is exactly happen (the setting, characters, etc.) in the next few chapters but some things may stay a mystery or confusing on purpose. 
> 
> I'm not sure how long this story will be also because I'm sort of writing this because it's summer so I don't have school and will have a lot of free time. I do have online classes during summer so I'm at the most going to update twice a week but these first few chapters may come fast since I'm writing the first few before I publish anything. 
> 
> Anyway I hope those of you who read this enjoy and I would really appreciate any feedback on this story. I would also appreciate if there is feedback maybe on the action scenes or anything related to that since this is my first story that involves those types of scenes and I'm not sure how well they will be written. 
> 
> -C


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